


Project Archangel: After Unification

by siralanoftrebond



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, F/M, Gundams, M/M, Season/Series 05
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-26
Updated: 2015-04-25
Packaged: 2018-03-25 18:54:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 18
Words: 50,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3821146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/siralanoftrebond/pseuds/siralanoftrebond
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the year 308 After Unification, two colonists named Dean and Sam Winchester get swept up in a war between the Unified Earth Empire and the Knights of Hell when the empire identifies them as compatible pilots for the legendary archangel mechas, Michael and Lucifer.</p>
<p>This an alternative telling of Season 5 of Supernatural in a gundam-style universe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

_At Earth’s darkest hour, the archangels were birthed from the hands of man. Creatures of shining metal and slick machine oil on the outside, they held within them the most advanced computer mind that has ever been developed – an OS designed to synch perfectly with a specific human mind. The Four were named for their human pilots._

_The smallest and most nimble among them was Gabriel, designed for stealth. With mirrored plates and cloaking technology, it is said that He could disappear at will._

_The protector among them, Raphael, was built with the ability to conjure shields and blades of electricity to strike through the enemies of mankind._

_Then there was Lucifer, shining red against the black of space. Larger and stronger than His younger brothers, He carried the blades of everfrost and everfire in each hand._

_The leader of the archangels was Michael, the fierce wielder of the unbreakable sword, gold like the sun and like the heavenly body, eternal in the eyes of Man._

_We gave them life to save us, and they did, taking out the asteroid that was bound for the Earth’s destruction, and bringing order to a planet of citizens that were at each other’s throats. For their service, the Great Unifier granted them a deserved rest._

_But regretfully, the long era of peace is coming to a close, threatened by the petty minded rebels who call themselves the Knights of Hell. The last Unifier has disappeared leaving a vacuum of power in the Empire. How can anyone argue against the necessity of reviving Project Archangel?_

_The current Raphael stands alone among the archangels, keeping the Unified Council in check. But what of the others? Gabriel has disappeared, and Michael and Lucifer remain pilotless. It is imperative that we find the pilots, and to do that, we must test everyone, even the colonists. Yes council members: you have heard me correctly. For surely a gem may be found even among the dullest stones._

_I urge you today to hear my plea before it is too late. I cannot speak for the Unifier, but surely if he were here today, he would grasp the severity of the situation and take action immediately._

-          General Zachariah addressing the Unified Council of the Earth Empire

The Year 307 A.U. (After Unification)

 

**Lawrence Colony  
283 A.U.**

The crashing sound that woke Dean shook the house and left him gasping in shock. Scarce able to catch his breath, he rose shakily, with fear clenching every muscle in his body. When the fog of his mind finally cleared, his senses woke to the danger around him – smoke filling his nostrils, the crackling of wood over fire, and then crashing sounds of the house falling to pieces around him. He pushed all of this aside and filled with purpose, he ran into the hallway, towards his brother’s room.

He stormed through the door, but before he could make it to the crib, Dean spotted his mother on the ground beside it. She was bloodied and trapped under a fallen beam. He froze.

“Get Sam!” she cried, hoarsely.

Wide-eyed, Dean turned to the crib and swept up baby Sammy in his arms. He yelled back to his mother, “I’ll come back for you,” as he ran towards the staircase.

The stairs were already crumbling. Nimbly, Dean hopped down the uneven planks, slipping at the end and rolling on his side as he fell, protecting Sammy. He barely felt the pain of his shoulder dislocating as he flew towards the door, crashing through it and out through the yard and onto the streets.

Finally, Dean stopped, his heart pounding through his chest. He put down Sammy and with a bracing breath, turned towards the house. He took two running steps before his feet were swept out from under him by a ground-shaking explosion. When he looked up, the four year-old boy was stricken by the sight of the wreckage of his house. Within it, under that mess of rubble, was his mother.

It was only moments later that Dean heard his father, John Winchester howling in a manner he had never heard before. “Mary!”

A panic stricken John Winchester, looked at Dean with a wildness in his eyes. Dean thought he saw a flicker of accusation there too, before his father turned back towards the house.

Under his breath, his father muttered, “They’re going to pay for this – all of them.”

That was that end of Dean’s short-lived childhood.


	2. Lawrence Colony

**Near Lawrence Colony  
308 A.U.**

There was no place else Dean would rather be than soaring in space with his small ship Impala. His baby was sleek black and chrome, just big enough for pilot, co-pilot and some cargo space. Though for about a year now, Dean had been doing runs without co-pilot, since his father was killed trying to take on a Knight of Hell mobile suit with nothing but a flimsy machine gun.

To drown out the memories, Dean turned the music up reveling in the explosive drum solo in this piece of 20th century rock music. Before the song ended, a comm transmission interrupted the music.

_United Empire Officer Samandriel to unidentified ship: You are not cleared to land on Lawrence Colony. Please stop immediately and surrender your ship for inspection._

Dean pressed the coms button and retorted, “Unidentified my ass! You know who I am Alfie.”

Samandriel’s voice came back on the com. _Dean, that’s not my name. Are you going to stop?_

Dean looked out his view window and saw the small mobile suit that Samandriel was piloting – angel class, the weakest order of mobile suits, but still much more deadly than the average space ship.

Unconcerned, Dean responded, “Are we going to dance this dance every time?” asked Dean, bringing the Impala into orbit of the colony, just above the atmospheric net, an energy field designed to maintain an atmosphere within the colony, while allowing supply ships to pass through. “If you were going to shoot me, you would have already, but then you’d risk damaging the colony. Hey, if I were up to something illegal, I’d tell you, wouldn’t I?”

_No, you wouldn’t_. Dean could hear the disapproving frown in Samandriel’s voice.

“Alfie! If I don’t tell you that I’m doing something illegal, then as far as you know, I’m not. So, it’s not your problem, right?”

_That… doesn’t make any sense. Dean, you have to stop. I have a duty to –_

Dean shut off the comm, cutting off the rest of Samandriel’s speech. To the dulcet tones of ACDC’s _Back in Black,_ Dean began his landing procedures.

From above, Lawrence Colony looked like its eight other surviving sister colonies – a flat disk covered in a 20th century suburban scene, complete with paved roads, cute bungalows, freshly mown grass, and white picket fences. It was said that Doctor Noah, who engineered the colonies as humanity’s life boat, was determined to preserve a piece of Earth’s history that he considered the height of humanity, before the changing climate turned Earth’s soil into sand and dust, and famine struck down three quarters of its population.

As Dean flew through the atmospheric net, his music was briefly interrupted by the interference. He probably should have headed straight to Bobby’s to drop off the parts he’d smuggled from Lebanon Colony, but he really needed a drink. Fortunately, the parking lot for the Roadhouse was mostly empty at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. He planted his Impala there before he hopped out.

The glass door of the bar opened to reveal a young woman with long blond hair, a short black tank top and hip hugging jeans. She leaned against the building, crossing her arms.

As Dean opened the watch and stepped out of the Impala, Jo Harvelle rolled his eyes at him. “Do you have to park that here?”

Closing the hatch, Dean gave her one of his winning smiles. “Now is that any way to treat your number one customer?”

“Number 2,” she said, before she warned him. “You know mom’s not going to be happy.” She entered the Roadhouse, with Dean on her heels.

The Roadhouse was dark and dank, just the way Dean liked it. Ash, the man with the mullet and a permanent fixture at the roadhouse, sat at the far end of the bar chewing quietly on a dried protein stick while typing silently on his laptop. Without looking up, he waved to Dean and went back to work.

Jo walked behind bar and Dean took a seat at the bar across from her.

“You don’t happen to have some Jack Daniels in the back, do you?” asked Dean.

Jo looked at him pointedly. Voice dripping with sarcasm, she said “Yes Dean. We have a brand of whisky that went extinct over 200 years ago in the back, and we’ve been saving it for our favourite customer.”

“Great,” said Dean, deliberately ignoring the sarcasm. “I’ll take a double.”

“Did anyone ever tell you, you watch too many old tv shows?” said Jo, pouring the Roadhouse’s caramel coloured homebrewed whisky in a glass.

“What else am I going to watch? Propaganda broadcasts from the Earth Empire?” He scoffed, downing the drink in an instant. He slammed the glass back onto the bar. “More,” he demanded.

At that moment, Ellen Harvelle, the no-nonsense owner of the Harvelle Roadhouse walked out of the back in her trademark hunter green digs. “Bad day?” she asked, scowling at Dean.

“No worse than usual,” he replied.

“Well it’s about to get worse. I’ve got Bobby on the phone wondering where his parts are at.”

“He’ll get ‘em,” said Dean, nursing his ‘Jack Daniels’.

“Damn straight,” replied Ellen. “You don’t keep the coordinator of the Lawrence Colony Militia waiting.”

“Are you kicking me out?” asked Dean, “Your number one customer?”

“Number two,” said Ellen with a smirk, indicating Ash. She softened her gaze slightly as she said, “You know Colony Militia are always welcome here Dean, but not if they’re not pulling their weight. And you know you’re not supposed to park that thing here.”

“Come on Ellen, I’m starving! The guys at Lebanon didn’t so much as offer me a protein stick.”

Relenting, Ellen told her daughter, “Get him the house special.”

Complying, Jo slapped a protein patty between two dried, compressed wheat cakes. “One house special,” she said, placing it in front of Dean.

“The way you make it Harvelle, I can almost pretend I’m not eating shit sandwiched between cardboard.”

The protein patty really was shit, processed and reconstituted to resemble a beef burger patty. Nothing was wasted in Lawrence Colony. Even urine was filtered and turned into drinking water. The colony could grow its own wheat and vegetables, but there were no animals on the colony, except the pollinating insects used for gardening. The colony was self-sustaining to a point. They still depended on shipments from the Earth Empire for additional water and things that could only be grown or manufactured on Earth.

“Dean,” said Ellen, breaking him out of his musings. “Eat and get out.”

“Yes ma’am,” said Dean, scarfing down his burger and finishing his drink. He really did need to get those parts to Bobby.  

As he was about to get up and leave, Ash said, “Hey Dean.”

“What’s up?” he asked.

“There’s been a lot of chatter on Earth military channels lately,” said Ash. “Something big is coming, and by big, I mean _huge._ ”

Dean waited for Ash to elaborate, but he was intent on his computer screen.

“Do you want me to guess?”

“I can’t tell you what it is yet,” said Ash. “I’m still unscrambling. Until I figure it out, the militia’s on high alert.”

“Great,” said Dean sarcastically. “Real useful.”

Ash shrugged apologetically as Dean left the Road house.

###

Dean parked his Impala at the Singer Salvage Yard and used one of the hover dollies to move the parts from his ship to the private hangar beside Bobby’s house. He scanned his thumbprint to gain access to the side door. He could hear Bobby working on the special project.

“Bobby! I got the parts.”

“About time,” said Bobby Singer, rising from his work. The older man had a greying beard, and wore a tattered blue baseball cap, and a vest over his flannel shirt. He stood beside a multi-coloured mobile suit about the size of an Angel class. Bobby and Dean had spent a year frankensteining it together from parts of mobile suits that they managed to salvage over time.

“These are the last parts we need,” said Bobby.

“The OS?”

“Ash installed it this morning,” Bobby replied. “He said he built it off the basic Angel OS, but with ‘tweaks’, whatever that means.”

Dean had a glimmer of excitement in his eyes. “That means I could be piloting this baby by next week.”

“Sure, if you want to bring the United Earth Imperialist down on our heads, idjit. The Colt is for emergency use only.”

“How the hell am I supposed to learn to pilot this thing, if I can’t even take it out for a test drive?”

“That’s your problem,” said Bobby, unsympathetically. “Let’s get these parts unloaded.”

After they finished unloading the parts, Dean began to grab some tools to help Bobby attach them.

“Hold on a second,” said Bobby.

Dean frowned. “The sooner we start, the sooner we can get her flying.”

“The Colt’s not going anywhere,” said Bobby. “Isn’t there somewhere else you need to be today?”

“Not that I know of… unless you have a mission for me?”

“When’s the last time you spoke to Sam?”

“What does Sammy have to do with this?”

“Answer the question, Dean. When was the last time?”

“I don’t know. Maybe last month. Does it matter? Sam’s made it clear he doesn’t need his big brother. He’s doing just fine with his cozy government job.”

“Is that what you think?” Bobby asked with bark. “Jess died barely a year ago. If you can’t see that he’s hurting, then you’re blind, boy.”

“Fine, I’ll visit him after we get the Colt up and running.”

“You’ll visit him today,” ordered Bobby. “Even if he don’t need you, you need him. And you’ve been working too hard lately.”

“Yeah, well it would help if I had a co-pilot to go on runs with me,” he said bitterly. After Dean’s father and Jess had been killed in the same conflict between Earth Empire and the Knights of Hell, Dean had expected Sam to finally join the Colony Militia as John had always wanted him to. He almost had, but in the end, Sam had told Dean that he could do more good for the colony by representing the colonists’ interests in local government. Sam believed in the work he was doing and he didn’t hide his disapproval of the Colony Militia’s illegal activities, but he would never rat them out either.

“Get out of here, Dean,” said Bobby, in a tone that broached no argument.

“He won’t want to see me—“

“Dean…” shouted Bobby.

Dean relented. “Fine. Fine. But I’ll be back in an hour,” he threatened.

###

Dean flew the Impala to the center of Lawrence Colony, parking on one of the landing pads beside the stately white sandstone government building. Despite how it looked on the outside, the government building was really a fortified bunker, built to withstand a mobile suit attack. As a government building, it was a target for the rebels known as the Knights of Hell who regularly attacked any targets affiliated with the United Earth Empire government and military, even Lawrence Colony’s local government, which was technically under empire rule. It didn’t matter that the colonies had no love for the forced rule of the empire, and it didn’t matter that it was colonist civilians who kept dying in the crossfire. The colonies were an attractive target for the Knights of Hell because they were badly defended. The Earth Empire spared the bare minimum resources for the protection of the colonies, because Earthers didn’t care about the lives of colonists. As far as Dean was concerned, all Earthers were enemies – whether imperialists or the Knights of Hell rebels who had murdered most of his family.

A perfectly manicured courtyard surrounded the white sandstone building, complete with a fountain, and a flower garden that spelled out the word ‘united’ in colourful flowers. There were no walls surrounding the building. The empire wanted the colonists to believe that nothing was amiss. Dean could picture Samandriel in his tailored white army uniform saying, ‘Don’t mind the explosions and the space battles going on above your head. Everything’s fine here. Knights of Hell? I’ve never heard of them. Your father must have died of heart attack.’ The Lawrence Colony Government Building and its perfect courtyard were extensions of the government’s propaganda, and too many colonists were still buying the lies, probably because they didn’t want to face the truth.

Once Dean made it up the path to the main door, the true nature of the Lawrence Colony Government Building made itself known as a projection of a low level officer in white imperial uniform appeared over the door.

“What is your name and who are you here to see?” demanded the officer without preamble.

“Dean Winchester here to see Sam Winchester,” replied Dean, stone-faced.

The projection turned his head to the side as if he were reading something. “You’re not on the schedule.”

“So, now I need an appointment to see my brother?”

“We don’t accept unauthorized guests.”

“Just tell Sam to get his ass down here. He’s allowed to leave the building, isn’t he?” asked Dean, wishing he had brought his Earth Empire uniform. He wasn’t above impersonating an Earth Empire office.

“There’s no need for colourful language,” said the officer with a huff as his projection disappeared from the door.

Dean stood there wondering if officer snooty was actually going to summon his brother, or if he’d been brushed off. And even if snooty did tell Sam that Dean was here, Sam might not even want to come down. He was probably too busy to want to talk to Dean.

He waited barely a minute before he decided to walk away. The Colt probably needed him more that Sammy. After he’d gotten half way down the path, he heard the door to the bunker open. Turning, he saw his brother Sam, a six-foot-four-inch giant looking smart and sophisticated in a tailored black suit that contrasted with his mop of overgrown brown hair.

Dean couldn’t help commenting on it. “You still haven’t gotten a haircut Sammy? I figured a government stiff like you could afford one.”

Sam ignored the comment as he approached Dean and asked, “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t it be?”

Sam looked confused. “It’s just that… you don’t exactly visit unless you have a reason.”

“Maybe I just wanted to look in on my little brother. Is that a crime or something?” Dean asked offensively.

Sam sighed and gave him the usual look that said ‘I’m perpetually annoyed with you and I disapprove of you in general’, before he said, “If it wasn’t urgent, couldn’t you have waited until I was done work?”

“Fine,” said Dean turning to walk away.

“Wait, Dean…” said Sam, following him and grabbing his arm. “What’s up?”

Dean wrestled with what to say next. The last thing he wanted to do was risk getting drawn into a conversation about feelings. He was only here because Bobby told him he had to be, but I wasn’t going tell Sam that. And if he missed Sam, well, he wasn’t going to admit that either. So, the next words out of his mouth were. “I thought maybe you’d want a beer with your brother. The Roadhouse is only a few blocks away…”

“A beer? Dean, really? It’s the middle of the afternoon. It’s not…” Sam trailed off as the sound of engine brought his eyes to the sky.

Dean looked up to see two large United Earth Empire passenger transport ships accompanied by two seraph class mobile suits.

Sam wrinkled his forehead, saying, “There are no scheduled Earth Empire visits today.”

“No shit,” said Dean, his eyes transfixed on the seraphs. They were the largest and strongest of the empire’s mobile suits next to the legendary archangels. The last time he’d seen one, he’d been four years old and having just witnessed his mother’s demise. Seeing two now could only signal bad news. Worse still, there was no way of knowing whether the ships belonged to the imperialists or the rebels, as the Knights of Hell were known for stealing suits from the army.

Dean finally forced himself to move, grabbing Sam’s arm. “We have to get out of here.”

“Where are we going to go?” asked Sam incredulously, resisting Dean’s attempts to move him.

“I’ve got the Impala parked out back. We could go to Lebanon or St. Louis,” he said, naming the nearest colonies.

“Under the noses of two mobile suits? We wouldn’t even clear the net before we were blown to pieces.”

“Then we’ll go Bobby’s or the Roadhouse… we can walk to the Roadhouse.”

“You go,” said Sam. “I have to see what’s going on here.”

Dean looked towards the road, ready to bolt, but he gritted his teeth and decided to stay with Sammy. The noise was deafening as the passenger ships and the mobile suits landed on the government landing pads, which were the largest in the colony. As the seraphs touched down, the whole colony shook. Dean worried about them scratching up his Impala _._

The scratch of an opening comms device from one of the seraphs echoed through colony. A rough, deep voice spoke through the device from his cockpit.

_This is an announcement from the United Earth Empire. The following colonists are to assemble by the Lawrence Colony Government Building immediately._

As the seraph pilot began to read out the names, Dean immediately discerned a pattern. Most of the names were of known Colony Militia members – Ellen, Jo, Ash, Bobby, Rufus, Caleb, and Gordon. At the end of the list, the pilot read out Dean’s name. Then, just when Dean thought he was done, he read one more name.

_Sam Winchester._


	3. Drafted

“Can we leave now?” asked Dean, impatiently.

“I don’t understand… I’m not Colony Militia. Why did they call my name?” asked Sam.

“I’m not waiting around to find out. Let’s go.”

“You really think we can hide, Dean? The colony’s not that big,” countered Sam. “Besides, we don’t know anything yet. We might not be in danger. The Earth Empire has good reasons for doing–”

“Really Sam,” yelled Dean. “Now is not the best time for one of your ‘the empire’s not that bad’ speeches,” he said, drawing his pistol.

“Really Dean,” countered Sam. “Are you planning to go out John Winchester style? He at least had a machine gun.”

Dean didn’t have a chance to respond. In that moment, the officers of the Earth Empire began to descend on them from the passenger ships. But the seraph reached him first, landing in front of him from a single bound.

_Colonist. Put your weapon down and identify yourself_.

Dean made no move to put the pistol down. Instead he pointed it up at the seraph’s head. “I have better idea. Why don’t you come out from that cockpit and face me mano a mano. And since you’re the uninvited guest here, Earther, how about you identify yourself.”

“Dean,” said Sam. “Put the gun down.” His hands were in the air. They were surrounded by Earth Empire Officers who were pointing guns at them.

Dean ignored all of them, and kept his pistol level. He always knew he was going to die in a fight of some sort. Today was as good a day as any.

_Your weapon is ineffective against this mobile suit._

“No shit Sherlock,” replied Dean.

_That is not my name_ , said the pilot, missing the reference completely.

“You don’t have books on Earth?”

Unexpectedly, the cockpit opened. The white uniformed pilot with the deep voice descended from the seraph from a thick wire that dropped from the head of the suit. He landed in front of Dean, tearing up the manicured grass of the courtyard with his combat boots.

The Earther pilot stared at him with unblinking blue eyes that were both terrifying and ‘other-worldly’. He was a good looking man with full lips and a five o’clock shadow, but his dark hair stuck up at odd angles and his uniform was ill-fitting and messier than his fellow officers, as if he couldn’t be bothered to care about such trivialities. Nor did he seem particularly bothered by the pistol aimed at his chest. He continued to stare robotically at Dean as he stepped closer and said, “Put the pistol down, Dean. No one has to die right now.”

“How the hell do you know my name?” he asked.

Sam answered the question first. “Census records. I’m sure headshots came with his list.”

The pilot now turned is laser gaze onto Sam, and said, “That is correct, Sam Winchester.”

Dean finally dropped his weapon to the ground. He wouldn’t be able to protect Sam if he were dead, and if the Earthers had plans for them, they weren’t going to be good.

“What do you want with us E.T.?”

The pilot crooked his head to the side and squinted his eyes, confused. “That is not my name either. I am Castiel, an officer of the United Earth Empire.”

“Yeah, the uniform was kind of a giveaway.”

Castiel told him, “You and your brother are being called to service for the United Earth Empire forces. You and the others on my list will be transported to a military base on Earth where you will –”

“Hold on a second,” said Dean. “Sam and I aren’t going to that shithole.”

“I assure you,” said Castiel sincerely. “Earth is not a shithole.”

“I can serve the Earth Empire just as well here. If you need a mechanic—“

“We do need mechanics,” said Castiel.

“What I’m trying to say here, Cas, is that me and Sam aren’t going anywhere.”

“You are being called,” repeated Castiel, as if refusal were somehow infallible. “The United Earth Empire requires your services for the protection of all its citizens. It is an honour.”

“Well, I hate to break it to you but me and Sam aren’t worthy of your ‘honour’, so why don’t you pick someone else. Besides, your list has some issues. Sammy isn’t even Colony Militia.”

“I cannot choose anyone else. Your names are on the list,” he said, indicating the tablet in his hand.

“And you always do everything you’re told?’

At that moment, the second seraph activated his comms device, and with a deep clear voice said, _Castiel. None of the colonists have arrived yet._

“Yes, Uriel,” said Castiel. Turning to the other officers, he ordered, “You two. Take the Winchesters onto the ship. The rest, fan out and search for them. Uriel, send the colonists a warning.”

As the soldiers ran to do Castiel’s bidding, Uriel’s voice boomed over the comms device. _Lawrence Colonists. You have one hour to comply with our demands. If you do not comply, you will be shot on sight, as will anyone who tries to hide or protect you. Any ships that attempt to leave the colony will be shot on sight. If your name is on this list, surrender yourself to the nearest United Earth Empire officer. If you know someone who is on the list, tell the nearest United Earth Empire officer._

“You don’t need to do that. We’re surrendering.” The voice belonged to Bobby. He approached the courtyard with the colony militia members on the list.

“That is a wise decision,” said Castiel, looking over the crowd. “However, Gordon Walker is still missing.”

“Yeah, well the cranky bastard wouldn’t cooperate,” said Bobby.

Castiel and two soldiers escorted the colonists on to the transport ships. As they walked, Dean slowed his gait to fall into step with Bobby. He whispered to the old man, “We’re not just going to let them take us, are we?”

“We don’t have a choice, boy,” said Bobby, as displeased with the situation as Dean. “We’re supposed to protect the colonists. If we try to run, we put them in danger.”

“And how are we supposed to protect the colonists if we’re stuck on Earth?”

Bobby shook his head and said nothing as they were put on the transport ships. The interior had no windows, and there were seats lined up on either side of the walls. Dean, Sam and Bobby were strapped into seats beside each other, and then they closed and sealed the doors.

No one was inclined to speak, so they waited in silence. Eventually they heard gunfire and then more silence.

“It sounds like they got Gordon,” said Bobby. “I told the man…”

“It’s not your fault, Bobby,” said Sam.

“I know that,” he spat back angrily.

None of the Earthers bothered to tell them anything. They knew they were leaving when the engines roared to life under their feet. Moments later, they felt the ship shake as it rose from the colony into space and towards the Earth.   



	4. Earth

**Planet Earth  
308 A.U.**

After their ship had landed, they were escorted one by one outside of the ship. They took Bobby first, then Sam and then Dean. When Dean stepped off the transport ship, he was unprepared for the chill blast that hit him, blowing through his clothing, making him feel naked and colder than he had ever been. The colony had an artificial climate that always kept at stable temperature, with occasional rainfall for the water cycle.

This was not the Earth he’d seen on old television shows. To his left, there was an endless white hilly landscape that melded into an opaque white sky, too thick to see the sun through, and yet too blinding to look at. The whiteness of the landscape was broken only by a giant metal statue of a man he assumed was probably the Great Unifier. To his right was their salvation – an atmospheric net housing within it a military base.

Icy snow crunched under his feet as he drew closer to the other prisoners who were huddling for warmth as the United Earth Empire soldiers finished emptying the two ships.

Sam finally broke the silence, saying to Dean and Bobby, “They could have just flown us straight into the base. Clearly they want us know how quickly we would freeze if we tried to escape.”

“Or maybe they’re trying to freeze us now,” suggested Dean. And then he said loudly to one of the passing soldiers, who looked as cold and miserable as the rest of them. “We’re not going to be any good to you if we freeze to death.”

The soldier ignored them. Now that all the colonists were outside of the ship, they were being counted. Dean could see now that there were about forty of them. Most were colony militia – all the ones that Dean knew about. But there were civilians too. They were probably trying to make up the numbers. Assuming they were taking a similar number of colonists from the other colonies, then they were amassing well over 300 workers from the colonies. He wondered if Ash had managed to unscramble those transmissions. Clearly he’d been right: something big was going on.

After they had finished counting, the office in command stepped forward and said, “When I call your name, step forward.” And he began to read the names off of a tablet.

“Seriously… roll call?” muttered Dean. “Fuck this shit.” He walked towards the atmospheric net.

“Dean, wait!” said Sam.

The officer interrupted his roll call to yell, “Colonist. Stay where you are!”

“Or what?” said Dean as he strode through the atmospheric net, half expecting to be shocked or shot, but nothing happened except for the usual buzz.

Once inside the base, he instantly, he felt warm. 

He was in an enormous hangar, filled with ships and mobile suits. The two seraphs who’d escorted them to Earth were being serviced in the docking bay.

Dean didn’t get very far before he was surrounded by soldiers pointing their machine guns at him. Mister roll call came marching towards him yelling, “I told you to remain in place.”

“I’m not one of your soldiers,” said Dean. “You can’t tell me what to do.”

Sam came through the net to try to come to Dean’s rescue. “Officer, he didn’t mean anything by it.”

Now they were pointing their guns at him.

“Hey!” yelled Dean. “We’re not going to work for you if you keep threatening us. I thought your job was to protect Earth Empire citizens. Last I checked, we were Earth Empire citizens.”

The officer was red in the face, struggling to come up with a response to Dean’s insubordination.

At that moment, a husky voice broke in. “What is going on here?” The blue-eyed seraph pilot had approached the officer, who went white in the face.

He turned and saluted. “Colonel Castiel. These two colonists were attempting to leave during roll call.”

Out of the corner of Dean’s eye, he could see the rest of the colonists casually walk in through the net, completely unnoticed by the soldiers.”

“Officer Hamael. I can confirm that they are all accounted for,” said Castiel.

“Except for Gordon,” said Dean sharply.

Officer Hamael yelled, “Do not speak out of turn.”

Calmly, Castiel told the officer, “I can take it from here, Officer Hamael.”

“But sir, they need to be marked,” said the officer.

Dean’s eyes widened. “What does that mean?”

“I will take care of it,” said Castiel, more firmly.

With no more protest, Officer Hamael turned and left, bringing the rest of the soldiers with him. Dean was surprised to see them leave. They were in the middle of a hangar, surrounded by ships waiting to be high-jacked. That was wishful thinking of course. The ships would be locked down. But if Dean offered his services as a mechanic, he could get close enough to the ships to learn the security systems. He would probably need Ash’s help. For now they were stuck, but they would definitely get out of this, somehow…

Castiel turned to Dean and said, “What happened to Gordon Walker was unfortunate, yet necessary. I can assure you Dean Winchester, the United Earth Empire has no interest harming its colonists. Please co-operate, and you and your friends will be well taken care of.”

“I’m not interested in your diplomatic bullshit,” said Dean, angrily. “You aren’t ‘marking’ any of us, whatever the hell that means.”

“It is nearly painless,” said the seraph pilot, patiently.

A larger, bald Earth Empire Officer with an unfriendly expression walked up them and said casually to Castiel, “What are you doing wasting time on these space monkeys?”

“What did you call us?” yelled Dean. It wasn’t that Dean didn’t know that Earthers thought themselves superior to colonists, but that this asshole had the gall to say something like that right in front of them.

“Uriel!” said Castiel, a sharp reprimand in his voice.

Dean recognized the name as belonging to the second seraph pilot.

“What, Castiel? Do you disagree with my appraisal?” asked Uriel, seemingly unconcerned about being flippant towards a superior officer.

Castiel seemed unsure of what to say.

Dean found whatever modicum of respect he had for the blue-eyed seraph pilot slipping away. Disgusted, he addressed Uriel directly and said, “Oh, so you think you’re superior, Earther. Go tell that to my ancestors. You know, the ones your ‘Great’ Unifier starved to death, ‘cause he was pissed at them.”

Uriel puffed up his chest and pointed a finger sharply at Dean, yelling, “You don’t get to speak like that about the Great Unifier. He saved all of us.”

“He saved your people,” said Dean, “Not mine.”

“That simply isn’t true, Dean,” said Castiel. “After your ancestors took the ships to the colonies and abandoned the Earth to the asteroid, the Great Unifier sent what resources they could spare to the colonies. But you must understand, there wasn’t much to spare at the time. The effects of climate change and the dust from the pieces of the asteroid that had hit the earth, obscuring the sun, had made food nearly impossible to grow. The rationing was regrettable, but necessary.”

“That’s bullshit,” countered Dean. “Your Unifier was an ego-maniacal tyrant who hated the founder of the colonies, Doctor Noah, for daring to question his ‘infallible’ Project Archangel. He deliberately kept back supplies out of revenge. Let me ask you, if he was so noble, why didn’t he let the colonists come back to the Earth?”

Uriel broke in. “He didn’t have to send anything at all. Your people were traitors, happy to let the Earth die because they had the money to get out, and short-sighted enough to believe that they could survive without Project Archangel.” Uriel began to approach Dean, until he was yelling in Dean’s face, “But your Doctor Noah failed. The colonies weren’t self-sustaining. If our Unifier’s archangels hadn’t taken out the asteroid, Earthers and colonist would have both died. You colonists have been leaching off us ever since. Remember Dean, you live only by the grace or our generosity, so if you want to continue to live, then you will SERVE.”

Dean yelled back, “We never asked to be exiles or slaves under your fucking empire. We don’t want to be— Ow!” Something pinched right shoulder.

He found Castiel marking something into his shoulder with a small handheld device, so he shoved him off. “What the fuck?”

Uriel looked ready to attack Dean, but Castiel put his hand up to stop him. 

The mark on his shoulder was a star surrounded by a circle. “What the hell is this?” he asked.

Castiel replied, “The tattoo marks you as a colonist and temporary worker on Earth.”

If Dean could have stabbed that asshole, he would have.

Castiel seemed undeterred by Dean’s murderous expression, though he did try to apologize. “I’m sorry Dean. It was—”

“If you say ‘necessary’ one more time, I swear…” He didn’t finish his sentence. There was nothing he could do and the pilots knew it.

Castiel looked away from Dean and picked up the device he had dropped when Dean had shoved him. Then, he ushered Sam to come forward. Dean could only watch in stony silence as Sam and the rest of the Lawrence colonists submitted to the tattoos. He rubbed his sore arm bitterly.

As Castiel tattooed the colonists, Uriel addressed them saying, “Listen up, because this is how things will proceed from here. You now work for the United Earth Empire. You’ll be assigned a position based on your skills and previous work experience, which we have gathered from the census records. You will be assigned a schedule. If you show up for your work shift and complete the shift, you will get a meal token. If you don’t, you won’t eat. Outside of your work schedule, you’re free to do what you want, as long as you stay within the habitat. That’s where you’ll be going next. Anything outside the net is strictly off limits. The hangar and all military installations are off limits, unless you’re assigned work there. You are not to leave the base, and if you tried you’d freeze to death anyway. If at any time there’s an emergency siren, go to your bunks and stay there unless otherwise directed, and stay away from the atmospheric net or you’ll be squished like a bug when the emergency walls come down. Any questions?” His tone suggested he was not interested in receiving any questions.

Dean thought of a few things he wanted to say to that asshole, but he kept them to himself. The sooner they got to the habitat, the sooner they could regroup and come up with a way out of this mess.

The Lawrence Colonists followed Uriel through the hangar, until they reached a large metal door. He waved his palm across the reader by the door, and the door opened upwards. They followed a long and wide sterile corridor, bounded by metal walls and a metal ceiling that made him feel claustrophobic. They passed several unmarked doors, with readers beside each one of them, until they finally reached a door marked by an encircled star – the same mark they had just been given.

“This is the habitat,” announced Uriel. “You can open the door with the marks on your shoulders.”

Dean tested it out, turning sideways, and the door opened.

“Your schedules are inside,” continued Uriel. “If you need access to any other areas of the base, the access will be transmitted through your chips.” He pointed to Dean’s shoulder.

Evidently, they’d been marked with more than just a tattoo.

The colonists filed in through the door. When the door closed, Uriel and Castiel were gone.

They were greeted by a familiar face.

Jo pushed ahead of Dean and ran up to the man, hugging him. “Uncle Caleb!”

“What the hell are you doing here man?” asked Dean, glad to see a friendly face. Well, friendly wasn’t exactly the right word. Caleb was a mean looking man with a shaved head who served as one of the primary arms suppliers for the colony militia. At the moment, he was wearing a hideous matching powder blue shirt and pants with reflector tape on the back and front, and an encircled star emblazoned over the right breast, and his first name on top of it. In addition, he was sporting a shiner on his right cheekbone. No doubt he had given his captors some trouble.

Caleb replied, “Much the same as you, I expect. They came for us Bristol colonists two days ago, and two days before that, they hit Samarra. And now you’re here.”

It was as bad as Dean had feared. They were methodically taking known members of the colony militia from each of the colonies, every two days.

Sam piped in, “I guess this is the end the colony militia.”

“Don’t count us out,” said Caleb. “We’re still alive aren’t we?”

“Yeah, and we’re going out of this,” said Dean. “Is there a plan yet?”

Caleb shook his head. “For now we’re just trying to gather intel. Most of us are in the factory, but it looks like some of you might have some more useful positions.”

Caleb pointed towards a large screen on one of the bare metal habitat walls. “Your job assignments are over there. Everything is assigned here – your bunk, your uniform. At least we still get to keep our names – for now anyway.”

The Lawrence Colonists began to gather around the screen. Most of the names had “factory” listed beside them. Even Ash’s name had “factory” beside it.

Dean commented on that to Ash. “It’s kind of a waste – you being put in the factory.”

“It’s not exactly like I had ‘hacker’ listed as my job on the census,” replied Ash. “As far as they know, I’ve been unemployed for five years. Looks like you and Bobby get to be mechanics.”

Sure enough, Dean found his name and the word ‘mechanic’ beside it. He was supposed to report to the hangar at 0800 hours in the morning.

“That could come in handy,” said Bobby.

“Kitchen!” exclaimed Jo. “I don’t cook. I’m a waitress.”

“Poor you,” said Ellen, unsympathetically. She was also assigned to the kitchen.

Dean search for Sam’s name and found ‘logistics’ beside it.

“Logistics? What the hell is that?”

Sam shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

Dean pulled himself away from the screen to look around the habitat. It was a large room. Half of it was lined with row tables and there was a bar and food serving area on the far end. The rest was mostly empty space with some chairs, benches and several screens currently showing images of nature. The room only had three walls. Where the fourth wall would have been opened up straight into the atmospheric net, allowing them to stare into the frigid wasteland and the temptation of freedom. There were two staircases leading to a floor above them – probably leading to the bunks. He saw some of the colonists heading up to find their bunks, but Dean opted to delay finding his cell and prison uniform.

Instead, he headed towards the bar in the corner of the habitat, still holding out hope that he might be able to get a drink in this cold hell.

“Hey, wait up!” said Sam, following him.

“Sure, it’s on me,” said Dean, smirking. “I did promise you beer.”

“Dean, you know there’s probably no alcohol on the base.”

“A man can dream Sam. A man can dream.”

In the dreary metal habitat, the bar stood out like neon on black. The bar was framed by a roughly made wooden arch and a placard nailed across the arch that had “Don the Beachcomber” engraved into it. On either side of the arch were two tiki torches. The long bar was also made of a rustic, dark-stained wood. Several colonists sat quietly on bar stools in their ugly powder blue uniforms, sipping colourful drinks that had little umbrellas in them.

The man behind the bar wore a ridiculous yellow Hawaiian shirt decked with pink flowers, and a large pair of sunglasses, despite the lack of sun. He wore a lei around his neck with a rainbow of cheap coloured flowers. Behind him was a painted mural of a beach with palm trees.

“Well hello hombres,” said the bartender, with a huge grin. “Welcome to Don the Beachcomber.”

 “Let me guess,” said Dean, “You must be Don.”

“The one and only,” he said pointing to himself with his thumbs. “And you both look like could use some Mai Tais.”

Sam said, “No... thanks,” at the same time Dean said, “I’ll take beer.”

“Riiiight, two Mai Tais it is.”

Don the bartender went to the bar and began pouring out two cherry red drinks, throwing a drink umbrella in each. “Have a seat boys.”

He placed the drinks in front of them.

Dean glared at the fruity red drink. Still, he was thirsty… “Down the hatch,” he said taking the glass in hand. “Cheers Sammy!”

Sam slammed his glass into Dean’s and they both began to drink.

It was sickeningly sweet. Almost like drinking syrup. He gagged on it before setting it down. “What the hell is this?”

“Could I have some water?” asked Sam, making a face.

“It’s my own concoction of fruit punch and cherry syrup – a virgin Mai Tai.”

“There’s not even any alcohol in this,” said Dean, affronted.

“You think that those bozos at the United Earth Empire armed forces central command would allow that inebriating ambrosia on a military base? I guess you didn’t know that the ‘Great’ Unifier was a proponent of the temperance movement. He was probably afraid that booze would lead to having fun or thinking for yourself or something.”

“A-fricken-men, brother,” said Dean. “What colony are you from anyway?”

“Colony? I’m an Earther, born and bred,” said Don, with a chuckle.

“Well, that explains how you ended up here. Forgot to make your morning prayers to the Great Unifier?”

“Something like that,” said Don, taking a gulp of Sam’s faux Mai Tai. “Yum!” he said, decidedly. “Anyway kids. It’s been fun, but you’d better get up to your bunks and get your uniforms on before you earn a dress code violation.”

Sam raised his eyebrow. “You’re wearing a shirt with flowers on it.”

“Yeah, well I haven’t been drafted yet, so I can wear whatever I want. Besides, I’ve convinced the higher ups that my wearing a Hawaiian shirt will improve the morale of the colonists. You know, because flowers are happy and shit. Why do you think they’re showing nature slide shows on all the screens?”

Dean got up from the bar stool and followed Sam, exiting the bar and turning to go up the stairs. The stairs led to a long grey hallway with grey doors. Each door had a small screen with a series of names on them. Dean and Sam found their names on the third door down. They were sharing a room with Bobby, Ash, Samuel, and two other colonists they’d never heard of. There were ten double bunks in the room, and barely any room to squeeze between them.

Bobby was lying in one of the bottom bunks. “Not so bad,” he said mostly to himself. “Better than my own mattress at home.”

There were small screen on each of the bunks, with names on them. Some of them were blank.

“We’re over here,” said Sam.

Their names were on the bunk beside Bobby and Ash’s.

“Dibs on the top,” called Dean.

“No way,” said Sam. “Rock paper scissors.”   

“I already called it,” complained Dean.

Sam made a face at him – somewhere between ‘I’m exasperated with you’ and ‘how can you resist my puppy dog eyes?’

“Fine,” said Dean, non-plussed. On the count of three, he threw out his scissors, and Sam threw out a rock.

“Son of a bitch!” yelled Dean, going over to take the bottom bunk.

There were two piles of uniforms neatly folded on the bed and two filled bags. He picked up the pale yellow pile with the label ‘Sam’ on it and threw it at Sam, as he was climbing the ladder to the bunk. “That’s yours.”

The uniforms fell to the floor. “Jerk,” said Sam, as we went back down the ladder to get this clothes.

“Bitch,” returned Dean. “Oh and this is yours too.” He tossed one of the bags at him, and he caught it easily.

Dean looked at his own mint green uniform, holding it up to this chest, “Who the hell chose these colours?”

Sam shrugged. “Pastels are supposed to be calming.”

“I am not wearing this,” said Dean. “They can’t make me. What are they going to do to me?”

Sam gave him a stern, disapproving look. “You heard what Uriel said, Dean. They’re going to take away your meals.”

Dean was already feeling hungry. The rebellious side of him wanted to go on a hunger strike to show those Earther pricks, but the idea of giving up food…

“Besides,” said Bobby. “Making trouble is not going to get us out of here. The plan is we lay low and learn what we can.”

“You know, I was thinking,” said Sam. “They could be monitoring us. At the very least, they’ve implanted gps trackers in us, but there could be audio and video recording devices anywhere.”

“You’ve got a point,” said Bobby.

“Well… is there any way we can figure out what they stuck in our shoulders?” asked Dean.

“Let’s put Ash on it,” suggested Sam.

Suddenly, a chime sounding from an intercom above the door. An electronic voice said, _The Lights will dim in one hour. Please prepare for bed. The United Earth Empire thanks you for your service._

Dean groaned. “Aren’t they going to give us something to eat?”

Dean began rifling through his bag on the off chance there might food in it. He found a pair of pyjamas that matched the colour of his uniform, a water bottle, and some basic toiletries. “This blows,” he said, throwing his bag down in frustration.

“I couldn’t agree more,” said Bobby calmly, still staring up at the bunk on top of him. “But the sooner you get to bed, the sooner you get breakfast.”

Dean scoffed. “Earthers probably don’t believe in breakfast, because it’s too fucking awesome,” he said as he grabbed the mint green pyjamas out of the bag and put them on.   



	5. Hazards

When Dean woke up, he wasn’t sure where he was. There was a chiming sound, and an electronic voice spoke: _It is now time to rise. Breakfast will be served in one hour. The United Earth Empire thanks you for your service._

Dean chucked his pillow uselessly at the intercom. He was too old to have someone telling him what to do. After the pillow was gone, he regretted it. He could have easily slept in for 50 minutes, done his morning routine in 10, and gotten breakfast. But without a pillow, he couldn’t get comfortable.

Sam has already coming down the ladder, looking bright and awake. “Morning sunshine,” he said to Dean obnoxiously.

Dean muttered, “Whatever,” and resumed trying to sleep. He closed his eyes.

The chime woke Dean with a start. _It is now time for breakfast. The United Earth Empire thanks you for your service._

“Are you going to fucking say that every time?” yelled Dean at the intercom. No one was in the room to hear it. He threw himself into bed. By the time he had showered, brushed his teeth, changed and got to the row of tables, the white-clad kitchen crew were already cleaning up the trays.

Dean found a miserable looking Jo cleaning up a tray. The white uniform fit her like a bag and she was wearing a hairnet. She didn’t even look at him when he approached.

“Hey Jo. Any food left?”

“You’re late,” she said crankily. “Service already stopped.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

“You think you have problems. They’re making me wear a hair net!”

Dean rolled his eyes. “Having a case of the teenaged girl this morning, Jo?”

“You’re one to talk,” said Jo, glaring at him. “I’m not the one who slept in. I’ve been working all fucking morning. I work in a bar Dean. I don’t do mornings.”

“Maybe Don needs a server. Once the rest of the colonists arrive, he’ll probably have his hands full.”

Jo looked like she was considering it. Then she took a piece of dry, uneaten toast from one of the trays and tossed it at Dean, before turning to leave with a pile of trays.

Dean made a face at the toast, but at that point he was too starved to care. He scarfed it down in a few seconds, when the intercom demon said, _This is_ a _five minute warning for day shift 1. Please report to your positions. The United Earth Empire thanks you for your service._

By the time Dean made it to the hangar, he had a crick in the neck from the hard mattress and his stomach rumbled from lack of food. So, he was in no mood to see Officer Hamael coming up to him and Bobby. By the look on the officer’s face, he was just as happy to see Dean. He looked down on the pad in front of him as if confirming that Dean really did belong here.

Officer Hamael stood in front of Bobby and Dean, and said “I am the head of the engineering corps at the base,” with an expression on his red face that dared Dean to defy him.

Dean groaned internally. What had he done to deserve this?

“Do you have anything to say about that Dean Winchester?” asked the officer.

Okay. Now the bastard was deliberately provoking him. He wondered briefly if Officer Hamael enjoyed laxatives mixed in with his breakfast.

“Excellent,” said Officer Hamael. “You’ve learned to keep your space monkey mouth shut.”

Dean’s nails dug into his palm as he made a tight fist. He had to resist the anger. Bobby was right. They had to lay low, and Officer Hamael was looking at Dean closely, waiting for him to react. When Dean didn’t, Hamael looked disappointed.

“Let’s get started,” he said, turning his back to them.

They followed him as he walked towards a transport vehicle that was docked in the hangar. The Earth Officer pronounced, “We need to do a basic maintenance check on this vehicle. First…”

“We know how to do a basic maintenance check,” said Dean. “Bobby owned his own garage and I worked there since I was a teenager.”

Officer Hamael huffed and said, “Show me.”

Dean looked at Bobby, who looked back at him incredulously.

For the rest of the day, Dean and Bobby were forced to demonstrate that they were capable mechanics to Officer Hamael, who was clearly skeptical that a colonist could be capable at anything at all. Dean’s hands itched to touch one of the mobile suits, but they never went near any that day.

Near the end of their shift, Colonel Castiel came to check in on the three of them. Robotically, he approached and Officer Hamael, and demanded, “Officer Hamael, report.”

Officer Hamael wiped a clump of grease on to his apron before standing at attention. “Sir.” He said, saluting and leaving a streak of grease above his eyebrow. “The colonists are…” he twisted his lips as he said begrudgingly, “competent.”

“That is excellent,” said Castiel.

“Why do you even need mechanics from the colonies?” asked Dean.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Bobby warning him with his eyes.

Hamael’s face turned redder. “Do not question…”

Castiel raised a hand to stop his tirade, as he replied, “Most who sign up for military service become pilots or fighters. Other duties, such as mechanics and working in equipment production are often considered lesser, more undesirable positions.”

“Yeah, because keeping your war equipment in fighting shape is so fucking unimportant,” said Dean, sarcastically.

“It’s not a belief I ascribe to. I was merely answering the question,” stated Castiel.

“You’re a pilot,” said Dean in response.

“I have a natural aptitude…” Castiel trailed off, his cheeks reddening slightly with embarrassment. “That’s not to say that I’m better than anyone or… All are equal in the eyes of the Great Unifier, and that includes you Dean.”

“The Great Unifier doesn’t have eyes, Cas. He’s dead.”

Officer Hamael yelled, “How dare you say that. You’re not getting your meal card.”

Dean’s face fell, nearly overcome with the desire to cry. He was so hungry…

But once again, Castiel came to the rescue. “Officer Hamael. The colonists are entitled to their beliefs. This is no reason to deny them their meals. Give Dean his card.”

Officer Hamael reluctantly handed the cards to Bobby and Dean.

Of course Dean was happy to receive his meal card, but he resented the fact that Castiel kept sweeping in to save him. The only thing worse than an enemy was an enemy who was behaving like a friend. What did Castiel want from him? What was his game? He didn’t understand it, and it didn’t make him want to trust him. In fact, it made Dean trust him less. At least he knew where Officer Hamael stood.

“You can both go now,” said Castiel to Bobby and Dean.

Neither Bobby nor Dean thanked him as they left. They had no reason to thank their captors for anything.

As they walked out of the hangar, Bobby turned on Dean and said, “What the hell are you doing boy? Why do you keep trying to provoke him?”

Dean knew he was talking about Castiel. “I don’t trust the guy, Bobby. What’s with him trying to be our friend, anyway? He… he creeps me out.”

Bobby gave a skeptic look but said nothing as they headed back towards the habitat, scanning the chips on their shoulders to get in.

Dean was the first in line for supper. The food was about the same as home – some grains, some protein patties, and vegetables. Somehow he had expected more from Earth. Being here wasn’t all that different from being on the colony, but with more walls and rules. Living here was like being a child again – before his mom had died anyway. John had rules, but he wasn’t much for strict schedules and routines. And perhaps, he was starting to revert to his childhood self, because, despite Bobby’s warning and defying any common sense, the next time Castiel checked in on him during Dean’s third shift, he once again lashed out.

Dean had been underneath a cargo ship looking at a loose part that needed soldering. He pushed himself out from underneath with his creeper, intending to get his soldering gun, when he saw Castiel starring down at him intently. Dean sat up in surprise, smacking his forehead on the edge of the ship.

Rubbing his forehead, he said, “What the hell Cas? Make a sound or something.”

The Earther replied, “My name is Castiel.”

“Yeah, but Castiel is weird. And it’s kind of mouthful. Don’t you have a last name, or are you like ‘Cher’ or something.”

Castiel cocked his head to the side in confusion, like some adorable confused puppy dog. Not that he had ever seen a puppy in real life. And for that matter, he should probably not associate the word adorable with an officer of Earth’s military.

The confused puppy replied, “I don’t know what that is… The people of Earth don’t have last names. Last names were outlawed by the Great Unifier. Having lineages promotes inequality and promotes the idea that the family bond is more important than loyalty to the Empire, which necessarily leads to chaos and instability.”

“Said the guy who lives in a monarchy.”

“The unifier is the only exception. A monarchy is the most efficient form of government. Unlike the monarchies of classical earth period, only a son or daughter born of the unifier and his or her chosen consort can legally claim the title unifier, and son or daughter must be the eldest. These strict rules ensure that there are no conflicts around succession, and stability is maintained.”

Dean smirked. “How’s that working out for you now? I heard your last Unifier ran away. And he didn’t have any successors.” 

“The line of the Unifier was unbroken for three hundred years. But it is true that the last Unifier has disappeared.” Cas looked thoughtful as he said, “It is an unfortunate situation. For now, the council must rule under Raphael, the last archangel pilot. That will change if they ever find a pilot for Michael.” He looked up suddenly as if he’d forgotten for a moment that Dean was still there. “I shouldn’t have said that,” said Cas, looking at Dean.

Dean looked back at the pilot, transfixed by his unbelievably blue eyes. Neither said anything for about a minute, at which point, Dean realized this was getting weird and he broke eye contact. Looking at anything but the pilot, he cleared his throat and said, “I’ve got to get back to work.”

Castiel didn’t say anything, but when Dean looked up again, he was already walking away.

A week passed and nothing much had changed, except three more loads of colonists arrived, including his Lebanon contacts, and more importantly, some smoking hot babes. But then, he wasn’t much in the mood for flirting, and it didn’t help that Don continued to maintain that it would be impossible for him to get any real alcohol. To add to that, Sam’s mopey homesickness was threatening to rub off on Dean. Dean had to keep convincing himself that that this was just another job, and eventually he’d finish it and head home. He wasn’t exactly a stranger to business trips.

Ash was still working on the chip and surveillance issues with limited success, so there wasn’t much escape planning going on. All Dean could do was continue to observe to the security in the hangar and the guard routines, and spy on the ship locking mechanisms when fucking Hamael wasn’t hovering over his shoulder. But every day, Dean felt like he was farther and farther from freedom.

One morning he was woken by the sound of a siren. It was a familiar sound. The Earth Empire military used it on the colonies to warn of an attack. Dean sat up with a start and swung his feet out of bed, ready for action. The siren cut out and the intercom voice. _There is an emergency situation underway. Please remain in the habitat._ The siren started again several times, and the message repeated.

Everyone in the room was wide awake and tense now. Dean looked across at Bobby and then up at Sam. No one knew what to do. There was nothing to do. They had no weapons. They couldn’t even access any of the areas of the base off work hours. Dean had never felt so helpless in his life.

He couldn’t sit there any longer. He left his bunk and Sam followed. They went down the stairs to find the rest of the habitat, dark and empty. Outside the atmospheric net, they could see the desolate white landscape. The only sounds or indication of something amiss came from the flaring siren.

“What do you think?” asked Sam.

“The Knights of Hell…” said Dean.

“Yeah, but, wouldn’t there be sounds of a fight outside.”

As if on cue, they heard an enormous crash that shook the whole base.

“What the hell was that?” asked Dean.

The siren continued without change, and then there was a second crash, as loud as the first.

Finally, a new message came over the intercom. _All mechanics report to hangar immediately._

“Finally,” said Dean, ready to bolt. He waited for Bobby who came down the stairs with a guy from Lebanon and a woman from Samarra.

When they opened the door to the hangar they saw two mobile suits crashed into the center. One of the mechanics was a driving a raising platform towards of the suits. At that moment, Officer Hamael came running towards them.

“You two,” he pointed at Dean and the man from Lebanon. “Come with me.”

They ran with him towards the platform and when they boarded the platform, the driver raised it towards the head of the mobile suit. The suit was propped up on its side by a broken a leg that was bent under it. Though it wasn’t standing straight up, they were still at least 70 feet off the ground when the platform jolted to a halt.

When they reached the head, Dean could immediately see the hole in the windshield that led into the cockpit. Hamael activated the lamp light on his helmet and pointed it towards the damage, revealing the unmoving form of the pilot behind the damaged windshield. He immediately began to type a code into the entrance of the mobile suit helmet, but there was no response from the pad. The electronics were shot.

“We have to get this thing open,” shouted Hamael.

Dean immediately reached for the blowtorch among the stack of tools on the platform. He didn’t have any safety glasses or any protective equipment, but he didn’t have a choice at this point so he activated the blow torch and began to run it along the seam of the cockpit, looking away from the bright light that could potentially blind him. He was sweating by the time he’d gotten about half way around the seam, at which point Hamael pushed him out of the way and used a crowbar to get the seam wide enough apart to insert a jack. It took all three of them to open the entrance wide enough for a person to get through.

They all looked down into the hole together, knocking heads against Hamael’s helmet. Getting a better view of the pilot, he saw that the pilot was unmoving and clearly had some kind of head injury. He was either dead or unconscious, and given the state of the suit, Dean would put his money on dead. Then he noticed a spark of electricity in the cockpit.

“Looks like we’ve got a live wire in there.”

The base shook slightly as a mobile class suit landed in the hangar. Dean looked up startled, praying they weren’t about to be shot up by an enemy mobile suit. Fortunately, it was only Cas.

Hamael yelled at Dean, “You’re going to have to go in there and get the pilot out.”

“Are you kidding me? I just said, there’s a live wire in there. The pilot’s dead.”

“You don’t know that.”

“If I go in there, I probably will be.”

“This isn’t a request. It’s an order,” yelled Hamael.

“At least get me a harness…”

“There’s no time for that.”

Dean folded his arms. “I’m not going in there. I won’t do it.”

Hamael replied viciously. “This is not a game, Dean Winchester. If that pilot dies because you didn’t save him, we’ll take one of yours – perhaps your brother, Sam Winchester.”

Dean stared coldly at the officer. He knew the Earthers wouldn’t hesitate to kill a colonist, and he wasn’t going to put Sam in danger. When this was over, he was going to make sure Hamael would pay… if he was still alive.

He didn’t look back at Hamael as he carefully stepped on the lip of the entrance they had made. Almost immediately, things started to go wrong. The suit started to shift slightly under Dean’s weight and he slipped. To avoid getting thrown off the suit, he tried to fall towards the hole in front him. The shorn metal cut into him as he fell through the hole, landing onto the pilot and…

He was suddenly jolted. There as a searing pain in his side, and he couldn’t move his body. Every muscle seized up. His heart was threatening to race out of his chest.

Dean was barely aware of what has happening around him. The mobile suit felt like it was moving and then there hands, and they were pulling him out. One moment, he was staring into a pair of deep blue and then into the darkness.

Another jolt brought him out of the darkness. Briefly he was aware that he was lying on something hard, and there was some kind of paddle in front of him. A defibrillator maybe? He tried to raise his head, but a pair of gentle hands pushed him back down. Dean felt the pinch of a needle in his neck before he was facing the darkness once again.

The next time Dean opened his eyes, he felt like he had come out of the longest sleep of his life. He blinked up at some blinding lights, and opted to close his eyes as his head began to swim. He was lying on something soft now. A mattress, he didn’t recognize. The blankets were itchy. He tried to open his eyes again and was able to adjust him to the light.

“Dean?”

The deep, rough voice came from beside him.

He shifted his head slightly and found himself looking up at Cas. How long had he been standing there?

Dean croaked out, “Cas…” or he tried. Clearing his throat, he tried again. “What happened?”

“Dean,” said Cas, with a measure of relief in his normally stoic tone. “A Knight of Hell was preparing to launch a suicide attack on the base. Fortunately, he was spotted by mobile suit on patrol. The pilot, Karael, was able to warn send a warning to the base, but not before he was shot down.”

“Did he survive?” asked Dean.

“Unfortunately, no. He was already dead before you went in to pull him out. But he saved many lives. The enemy pilot was planning to crash his suit into the base, and take out a section of it. I’ve seen sort of thing before,” he said distractedly.

“I guess you stopped him,” said Dean.

Cas answered, “Yes, I had time to scramble my mobile suit and shoot down the enemy as he came upon the base. He did not survive either.”

“So… maybe this a weird question. Did you… did you pull me out of there, or did I imagine that?”

“Yes Dean. You were electrocuted in the cockpit of the mobile suit. I pulled you out.”

“How?” asked Dean.

“I was in my mobile suit on the hangar at the time. I was able to get close enough to jump into the cockpit from the seraph.”

“You did what? You could have been electrocuted. Or you could fallen out of the suit…” He didn’t understand why an Earth officer would risk his life for a colonist. It didn’t makes sense.

“You were my responsibility,” said Cas. Then he added, “Everyone on this base is.”

Right. That made sense. But no it didn’t. “I’m pretty sure you went a bit beyond the call of duty there, Cas.”

Cas looked embarrassed.

Dean paused before adding, “Thank you… for saving my life.” He didn’t like that he owed an Earth officer his life, but at the moment, he was too grateful that he was still alive to care about that.

“You shouldn’t thank me, Dean,” said Cas, in a serious tone.

Dean tensed. The other shoe was going to drop now. He was about to find out what he owed.

“I put you in that situation,” said Cas, hoarsely. “I should never have allowed Officer Hamael to supervise colonists. He had no care for your safety. You should know, I’ve relieved him of duty and recommended a court martial to my superiors.”

There was guilt written all over his face. Clearly, Cas blamed himself for Dean’s situation, but Dean didn’t understand why. Maybe the guy had a martyr complex. In any case, Dean allowed himself to relax and ask, “How long have I been in here?”

“It’s been 38 hours,” replied Cas, oddly specific.

“Almost two days? Where’s Sam?”

“He sat by your side most of the time. He wouldn’t eat or sleep. I finally ordered him to bed, but he wouldn’t leave until I promised him to watch over you.”

“Good,” said Dean. He didn’t like the idea of his brother stressing himself out like that.

The curtain behind Cas opened up revealing a brown haired woman in a brown coat. “Are you still bothering my patient?” she asked Castiel, in a playful, flirting tone.

Castiel tensed instantly, giving the doctor a deer in the headlights look. He finally said, “He’s awake.”

“I can see that,” she said with a wry grin, sliding past Cas towards Dean.

“Did sleeping beauty finally get true love’s kiss?” she asked dryly.

Dean was stunned for moment, not expecting a pop culture reference from an Earther. And then he was embarrassed, realizing the connotations of her statement. Evasively, he said, “Not yet. You want to give it a go?” with a suggestive grin and a wink. As soon as the words came out of his mouth, his own mind began to berate him to them. _Smooth Dean Winchester._

The doctor was unimpressed. Business-like, she ordered, “Lie still,” as she pulled out her tablet and began to scan him. After a moment she pronounced, “You’re going to stay here at least another day, for observation.”

“Like hell I will,” countered Dean. He wasn’t going to stay here any longer than he needed to.

“That wasn’t a suggestion,” said the doctor, coldly.

“Meg is right,” said Cas. “Your heart was stopped, Dean. It’s still weak…”

Meg cut Cas off by giving him a pointed look, before saying, “I can do my job, Castiel. I don’t need you to rescue me, unlike someone else here.”

Another dig at Dean. She really didn’t like him, probably because he was a colonist, but at least she hadn’t called him a space monkey yet.

Meg continued, “Like I said Dean, you’re staying here until I say you can leave. I’m prescribing you bed rest.” Then she turned to Cas and said, “Don’t stay here too late Clarence,” as she slid past him, and closed the curtains.

“That’s not my name,” said Cas, giving her a confused look.

Dean gave a belated chuckle, suddenly getting the joke. “Clarence!” he exclaimed. “The angel from _It’s a Wonderful Life_ …”

Cas narrowed his eyes in confusion.

Dean continued, “An angel – you pilot a seraph class mobile suit.”

“Yes, the United Earth Empire Military mobile suit fleet is named for the angelic hierarchies of the Judeo-Christian religion, but I am not an angel, Dean.”

Was this guy serious? “I know that Cas,” he said, rolling his eyes hard.

Cas just stared at him stiffly.

“So… Meg,” he said with a grin.

Cas didn’t seem to understand what Dean was trying to get at, so he said, “Meg is a doctor with the Earth—“

“I know that Cas. So, are you two going to… you know… the horizontal tango? Knocking boots? Bumping uglies?”

Cas looked at him blankly.

“Sex!” exclaimed Dean, loudly.

The pilot was suddenly taken aback.

“You do know she has the hots for you,” said Dean. “She could not have made that clearer.”

“I don’t…” stammered Cas. A red blush had spread across his face. “I didn’t… No.”

“Are you a virgin or something?” asked Dean.

“I… I haven’t had the occasion…” said Cas, rubbing the back of his head, nervously.

“Well, since I owe you one, I’m gonna get you laid,” announced Dean.

“That’s… not necessary,” said Cas.

“No really. As soon as I get out of here—”

“I should go tell your brother that you’re awake.”

“Right,” said Dean, pushing down his disappointment. Where had that come from anyway? It’s not as if they were friends or anything. He barely knew Cas. But Cas saved his life and…

A sudden thought struck him. The pilot, Karael, had warned the base of an attack. So…

Cas was already starting to walk away, when Dean said, “Wait…”

Cas turned around. “Yes Dean?”

“If you knew the attack was coming, why didn’t you raise any of your defences? I thought… Uriel mentioned that base had retractable walls that could be raised in the event of an attack.”

The Earther looked away. For a moment, Dean didn’t think he would answer, but then finally he said quietly, “We tried.”

“What does that mean?”

“The walls didn’t rise. The mechanism had been tampered with.”

“Wait a minute… are you telling me there’s a Knight of Hell on the inside?”

Cas paused, before he answered, “We believe so, yes.”

As Dean contemplated his words, Cas left the room. Not only were they all trapped here, but now their lives were in danger too.   



	6. Tested

When Sam visited Dean in the clinic the next morning, he looked pissed. The first thing he said was, “You were right Dean.”

“Right about what?”

“The Earthers. Clearly, the anti-colonist prejudice is too strong. That Earth officer almost got you killed to save a corpse.”

“Yeah well… mostly, they’re dicks. But, they aren’t all bad though. I mean… Don’s not such a bad guy, right? And Cas…”

Sam gave him an incredulous look. “You mean Colonel Castiel… you’re calling him Cas now?”

“He saved my life, Sam.”

“Yeah, and you wouldn’t be here at all if it wasn’t for him.”

“He was following orders…”

“I can’t believe it,” said Sam, shaking his head. “I didn’t think I would live to see the day when you defended an Earther. Aren’t you the one who said that all Earthers are enemies?”

“Rub it in my face, will ya? But Listen Sam,” he said, grabbing the ugly yellow sleeve of his brother’s uniform. “We have bigger issues than Earther dicks.”

“Such as?”

“Knights of Hell dicks – as in, one that’s on the base with us and almost got us killed.”

“What do you mean?”

“They didn’t raise the walls Sam. The walls had been sabotaged.”

Sam looked at him, surprised. “Cas told you this?”

Dean nodded.

“Do they have any suspects?”

“Not that I know of. They probably would have interrogated them by now. Anyone go missing?”

Sam shook his head. “Not as far as I know. I’ll ask around.”

“Be careful,” cautioned Dean, giving him the stern big brother look. “Don’t ask the wrong person. I mean, shit… it could be anyone.”

“Well,” said Sam, “I’m pretty sure it’s not you. It’s definitely not me. And I’m 99.9% sure it’s not Bobby. And—”

“I get it. Just, keep Bobby close. Or better yet, wait for me to get out this overly sanitized prison.”

“When are you out of here?”

“Doctor Meg is locking me up here for at least another day.”

Sam raised his eyebrows. “I take it you’re not a fan of Doctor Meg.”

“She’s just another Earther dick,” said Dean, dismissively. He flashed back to Meg flirting with Cas, and he felt inexplicably irritated about it. “I tell you, Sam. As soon as I get out of here, I’m going to track down that nice mechanic girl from Samarra, and I’m going to…”

“Okay Dean, I get it,” said Sam, unimpressed.

The fact that Sam hated it when Dean would speak about his sexual exploits only made Dean want to do it more. Sam could be a real stick in the mud – most of the time. He started a mental list in his head: ‘Get Sam laid, get Cas laid, get me laid.’

Dean was true to his word. Meg finally gave him the all clear the next evening, which was fortunate because Dean was starting to go steer crazy. He’d had nothing to do, and no one had visited him all day. When he went back to the habitat, he went straight to Don the Beachcomber hoping to find that pretty brunette mechanic. He didn’t see her, but he figured she’d probably show up eventually. When Dean reached the bar, two people were just leaving so he snatched up a spot.

“Hey Deano,” said Don, spotting Dean. “I’ve got just the thing for your recovery.” He poured something orange into the glass.

Dean took a sip. “Orange juice? I haven’t drank this stuff since I was a kid.”

“Drink up. It’s good for you.”

“It’s loaded with sugar,” complained Dean.

“Weren’t you just asking me about contraband pies the other day?”

“The point is, you don’t drink sugar. You eat sugar.”

“Is that what you’re looking for here Dean, some sugar?” He raised his eyebrows suggestively.

“Don’t do that,” said Dean, giving him a thoroughly unimpressed look. “I’m looking for a chick – brown hair, tall, smoking hot. She’s the only one in green.”

“You mean Lisa,” said Don. “Funny. I didn’t think that was your type.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” demanded Dean.

Don kept the mischievous grin on his face as he indicated something with his chin. Dean turned around to find Lisa approaching one of the row tables.

“My lucky day,” said Dean. “Go over there and send her a drink. Tell her it’s from me.”

“Do I look like your errand boy?”

“You’re the only one working here.”

“Yeah. Well I don’t have any servers, and now that the last load of colonists is in, we’re permanently swamped.”

“About that…” said Dean. “Jo Harvelle was looking for a job as a server. She used to work at the bar back home. I’m sure if you explain your case to Cas, you can get some help.”

Don snorted.

“What?” asked Dean.

“Oh, nothing… maybe I will,” he said as he poured a cherry red drink into a martini glass, popped a maraschino cherry in the bottom, and stuck in a blue drink umbrella. He gave Dean a grin, before he yelled loudly, “Hey Lisa. Dean Winchester over here wants you to have this drink, so get your ass over here.”

Dean gave Don a ‘what the fuck look.’ “You know, I’ve changed my mind. All of you Earthers are a bunch of dicks.”

“Even Cas?”

Dean was saved from answering by Lisa’s timely arrival. Fortunately, she seemed amused by the situation as she accepted the drink from Don.

She sat on the empty barstool beside Dean and said, “Cheers.” Clinking her glass with Dean’s before taking a sip. She made a face and put the drink down. “One of Don’s faux Mai Tais.”

Don winked at Lisa.

Dean glared at the bartender who was hovering over them. “Hey, you think we could get some space?”

The bartender held up his hands in mock surrender and moved on to other customers.

“What’s with that guy?”

“Actually, I kind of like him,” said Lisa. “He definitely adds some character to the place, don’t you think?”

“Yeah well, I’d rather not be here at all.”

Lisa gave him a sympathetic look. “How are you doing after the whole electrocution ordeal?”

“Doc gave me a clean bill of health,” said Dean, smiling.

“It could have been any of us. I’m lucky they didn’t send me down there. I’m a klutz. I would have probably fallen off the mobile suit and fell to my death.”

“They wouldn’t have sent you. You’re too pretty,” he said with charming smile.

Lisa laughed at him. “Wow. That was corny.”

“I try,” said Dean. “Anyway, that Hamael jerk totally had it out for me. Did you hear he got fired?”

“That’s something to celebrate,” said Lisa with a smile. “I just wish we had something real to drink.”

“Then, how about we skip the phony drinks…” He set down the orange juice. “…and go up to my room?”

Lisa paused for a moment and then leaned in seductively. “Lead the way,” she said in a soft whisper.

He didn’t need to be told twice. Dean stepped of the stool and…

The chime started. _This is a special announcement. The following personnel are to report to the hangar immediately: Ellen Harvelle, Jo Harvelle, Bobby Singer, Rufus Turner, Dean Winchester, and Sam Winchester._

“Son of a bitch,” said Dean. He should have known his good luck wouldn’t hold out. “What the hell is this about?”

“They’ve been calling people throughout the day,” said Lisa. “Always groups of six. They’ve called in three groups already, and none of them have come back. This makes four.”

“Fuck. These Earthers are twisted,” he said as he made his way through the crowds of colonists to find Sam. He couldn’t find him, but Bobby, Rufus, Jo, and Ellen were waiting for him by the door.

“Where’s Sammy?” asked Dean.

“I haven’t seen him all day,” said Ellen.

Bobby supplied, “He’s been working since this morning. Extra long shift it looks like.”

“What do you think they want with us?” asked Jo. “They took Caleb this morning.”

Dean tried to give Jo a reassuring look. “I’m sure it’s nothing, kid. They won’t kill us, because they need us to work.”

Jo glared at him. “I’m not five Dean. You don’t have treat me like a child.”

“Quit yer yapping and let’s get this over with,” said Bobby crankily, as he went through the door to the habitat.

The first thing they all noticed when they entered the hangar were the two massive mobile suits standing there, taking up most of the hangar. Dean was transfixed by the sight of them. They were at least twice the size of the seraphs. One of the suits was bright red and carrying a sword handle in each hand. The other was blue and gold, carrying an enormous golden sword in one hand and large shield in the other. He couldn’t believe that anyone still had the kind of knowledge and technology to make anything like this. There was moveable platform by each of the mobiles suits, waiting to be risen. He felt sorry for whatever poor mechanic had to go up there to perform maintenance on those giants.

He was so transfixed by the giant mobile suits that he barely noticed the group of Earth Imperial officers standing before them until one of them coughed to get his attention.

A balding grey haired man in a pristine and well-decorated white uniform stood before them, wearing a smile that was too wide and didn’t reach his eyes. He was flanked by two well-armed soldiers on each side of him who acted like guard dogs, standing close to their master and giving the colonists warning looks.

“Gentlemen,” said the man. “And ladies,” he added, nodding towards Jo and Ellen. “Let me introduce myself. I am General Zachariah, and today, I present to you the crown jewel of the Earth Empire, the greatest mobile suits ever made, the archangel Michael and the archangel Lucifer.”

So these were the archangels? That explained their size. But that didn’t explain why they were here. It seemed odd, bringing the empire’s most important weapons to a base filled with Colony Militia, and at least one Knight of Hell spy. But now it made sense why none of the groups had come back. Just by seeing the elusive archangels, they had been exposed to military secrets, so why were they here at all? Dean’s anxiety grew by the minute.

“You’re probably wondering why you’re all here,” said Zachariah. “Before we get started, is anyone carrying any tech?”

All of the tech they had had already been confiscated. When no one said anything, Zachariah said, “Fair warning. If you’re lying, your tech is about to get fried.”

Dean had to resist jumping backwards when the armed soldiers descended on them with some wand like devices. They ran the wands up and down each of the colonists. Finally, one of the soldiers said, “All clear,” and like the good dogs they were, they returned to Zachariah’s side.

“Excellent,” said Zachariah. “Now we can get you all fitted with safety harnesses,” he said, walking towards a group of workers carrying harnesses, expecting the colonists to follow.

“Hold on second,” said Dean. “Are we going up there?”

Zachariah turned around, looking utterly confused at having been asked a question. He peered at Dean like he might size up some prey. “And who are you?”

“Dean Winchester,” he replied strongly, keeping eye contact with the general.”

“Yes, Dean Winchester. You will each be going up to the archangels, one at a time.”

“What the hell for?” asked Dean.

General Zachariah looked like he suddenly had a bad taste in his mouth. One of his soldiers had moved the grip on his rifle, as if he was getting ready to use. After a moment of tension, Zachariah gave him a wide, patronizing smile and said, “Be patient, and you’ll find out.”

Zachariah didn’t wait for any more comments as he continued walking towards workers. He stood there with his soldiers, watching the colonists closely as they were fitted with harnesses. Dean felt like a zoo exhibit. After he’d put on one of the harnesses, one of the workers came around and pulled all the straps uncomfortably tight.

Zachariah couldn’t resist a smirk as he pointed at Dean and Sam. “You two first.”

Dean and Sam looked at each other. When they didn’t move, Zachariah’s guards shoved them towards the platforms. Sam was taken towards the red mobile suit, while one of the guards grabbed Dean’s arm roughly, and began dragging him towards the suit with the giant sword.

Dean pulled his arm away forcefully, saying, “I can walk.”

The fact that Castiel was waiting for him on the platform did nothing to ease Dean’s tension. In fact, he felt suddenly betrayed. The seraph pilot gave no sign of recognition, treating Dean like a stranger. But when the guard came up to the platform with Dean, Castiel said, “I can take it from here.”

“Sir, he’s difficult.”

“I can handle him,” said Castiel coldly. His stern look broached no defiance.

“Yes sir,” said the soldier standing back.

As the platform began to rise, Dean said, “Maybe you should have taken the guard’s advice. I’m not sure you can handle me.”

Castiel didn’t reply with words. Instead, he used his eyes to indicate the worker standing with them. They weren’t alone, so he couldn’t speak freely.

 “I don’t care,” said Dean loudly, causing Cas to flinch nearly imperceptibly. “If you want my cooperation, you’re going to have to tell me what’s going on here.”

Cas looked at the worker who looked away and started fiddling with his laptop. The pilot then leaned in and said quietly, “Dean, you need to be careful around Zachariah. He isn’t nearly as tolerant as I am.”

“I don’t give a shit,” said Dean, more quietly this time. “What is this all about?”

Cas sighed unhappily. “I promise you Dean, there is nothing to be concerned about. Neither you nor your brother will be harmed.” He paused and asked, “What do you know about the archangels?”

“Not much,” said Dean. “I know that the only active archangel is Raphael. I heard that they need some kind of special pilot.”

“Yes,” said Castiel. “The archangels were built to be operated only by a specific pilot. The operation system of the archangels is advanced and beyond our current understanding, however, with this advanced OS, the pilot can synch perfectly with the suit allowing for greater control of the suit’s movements. Given the size and power that the archangels wield, this control is essential. Unfortunately, the OS will only accept a pilot with compatible brain wave patterns.”

“So, you’re testing whether our brain waves are compatible with the archangels?”

“Yes Dean. But the chances of having high compatibility with an archangel are very low. Most people score under 20% compatibility.”

“If you can’t pilot the things, how did you get them here?”

The platform jolted to a stop. Dean tried not to look down. The worker began to hook the laptop into the computer onboard the archangel.

As this was happening, Castiel explained, “Someone with a compatibility over 50% can move the archangels short distances. There are a few members of the military with this level of compatibility. At least 75% is required to properly pilot the archangels. It has been several generations since there has been a pilot for Michael or Lucifer with a compatibility over 75%. However, the council has decided there is a need to revive Project Archangel. This base has become part of a pilot project to test the compatibility of the archangels with colonists – for the first time in history.”

The worker approached Dean with a helmet that was hooked up to the mobile suit and the laptop, and said, “Put this on.”

Dean looked at it reluctantly.

Castiel told him, “You won’t be synching with the mobile suit. Your brain wave activity will simply be measured against the parameters requested by the OS. The procedure is harmless.”

Dean still looked sceptical. Were they going to be able to read Dean’s thoughts? Could they use his brain wave patterns to control him? He had never heard of technology like that, but he wouldn’t put it past the Earthers.

The worker who was performing the test had practically read Deans thoughts because he rolled his eyes and said, lazily, “We won’t be able to tell what you’re thinking. We aren’t interested in recording the brain wave data of the thousands of people we will be scanning. And, no we can’t control your brain.”

Dean felt a little bit sheepish. Apparently, the worker was used to these questions. “Fine,” said Dean unhappily, grabbing the helmet and putting it on his head.

He had expected something dramatic, but nothing happened except for some graphs popping up on the laptop screen.

“It will take a few minutes,” said the worker, clearly annoyed by Dean’s hovering.

They stood around in awkward silence. Finally, needing to make conversation, Dean said to Castiel, “So this is Michael? And that’s Lucifer?”

“Correct,” said Castiel.

Dean looked over at the platform. He could see that Sam was also wearing a helmet at this point. When Dean looked back over at the laptop, there was a loading screen. Finally, a large number popped up on the screen: 100%.

Everyone on the platform froze for a moment.

Then Dean stammered, “That’s not… that’s not my result right? That’s just a…”

“There must be some kind of mistake,” said the worker. “It’s not possible.”

Dean looked at Cas for reassurance, but Cas was now staring at Dean. The pilot’s eyes shifted with emotion, moving from awe to trepidation. He looked like he was about to say something, when he heard an excited voice call from Sam’s platform. “It’s 100%!”

“Here too!” called out the worker on Dean’s platform. “100%”


	7. Choices

Dean could hear the Earthers chattering below.

“Get back down here,” ordered General Zachariah.

The worker hurriedly unhooked all the wires, before signalling the platform driver to lower them.

“Dean,” said Cas with a wide-eyed look, grabbing his sleeve.

“What the fuck is going on?” asked Dean. “What does this mean?”

“I… I’m sorry Dean,” replied Cas, looking away with a mixture of shame and sadness.

“What do you mean, you’re sorry?” He ripped his arm away from the Earther. “What are they going to do to us? To Sam?”

Castiel shook his head. “I don’t know, Dean. No one expected this. The odds of this happening were… infinitesimal. There has never been 100% match on an archangel since the original pilots. It’s as if you and Sam are the re-incarnations of the original Michael and Lucifer.”

Dean was incredulous as he said, “Re-incarnations? There’s no such thing Cas. There’s no destiny, no fate, and no gods. And your Great Unifier was just a douche scientist-turned-dictator. Michael and Lucifer were just regular mobile suit pilots like you.”

Cas looked like he wanted to argue, but instead he said, “I understand that you don’t believe the same things I do, but whether you believe or not, Dean, you and Sam have been identified as viable pilots for the archangels. But, it is your choice whether you accept that role. A pilot’s mind cannot be synched with an archangel against the will of the pilot.” And then he lowered his voice and leaned into Dean so that his face was just inches away. Dean tensed. He could see all the details in Castiel’s dark blue irises and take in the faint odours that were Cas – vanilla and spice, with a touch of musk. “Don’t allow Zachariah to force you or your brother into anything. Remember Dean. This is your choice.”

When Castiel pulled away, Dean released the breath he had been holding. He almost lost his balance as the platform came to a stop.

Two soldiers met them at the bottom, and they escorted Dean towards Zachariah and away from Cas. When he saw Sam, he noticed instantly that his brother was pale and sweating.

“What did they do to you, Sam?” he asked.

General Zachariah replied, “Nothing we didn’t do to you, Dean Winchester. It’s probably the heights.”

Sam wasn’t afraid of heights.

“I’m fine, Dean,” said Sam, but there was a shakiness to his voice.

“You don’t look fine,” stated Dean.

Sam gave him a look that said ‘drop it,’ as they followed Zachariah and his guards out of the hangar and into the hallway. They were a led to room that looked suspiciously like an interrogation room. It was bare and it contained only a table and few chairs.

“Please sit down gentlemen,” said Zachariah. “I will be back in a few minutes, and then I will answer all of your questions.”

With those words, he closed the door leaving Sam and Dean alone in the room together. They looked at each other as they took a seat. There was a lot he wanted to say to Sam, but he knew they would be watching them closely and listening to everything they were saying, so he resisted the impulse to speak. He folded his arms and hunkered down, preparing for a long wait. Sam followed his lead.

Half an hour passed before General Zachariah walked into the room and sat on the other side of the table, flanked by two of his guards. Zachariah cleared his throat and said, “I’m sorry. That took longer than I thought.”

Dean was tempted to call him on his bullshit, but decided that the less he said, the better. 

“I thought I would go over with you what being an archangel pilot in the United Earth Empire armed forces entails. And boys, the job is not without its perks.” Zachariah’s wide and warmthless smile made Dean think of a shark.

Zachariah continued, “As an archangel pilot, you will be granted full Earth citizenship, and you will be free to travel between Earth and the colonies. In fact, you can travel wherever you want – off duty.”

Why did Dean get the impression that Zachariah was trying to sell him a bill of goods? Dean said, unenthusiastically, “Great. So, what’s the catch?”

“The only ‘catch’ is you’ll be working for the United Earth Empire military. But don’t think that means gentlemen that everyone will be giving you orders. In fact, as pilots of Michael and Lucifer, your military authority will be second only to Raphael, the head of the high council. Think you what could do with that kind of power.” He looked at Dean and said, “You could for example, use the resources of the United Earth Empire armed forces to track down the Knights of Hell that killed your mother.” Then he turned to Sam, saying, “And think of what political power you could wield. If you wanted, you could have a seat on the high council. You could change the political situation for the colonies. You could end the restrictions for colonists, and give them the freedom to travel to Earth and immigrate there.”

Clearly, Zachariah had done his research on them. “Let me get this straight,” said Dean. “You would give _us_ , two colonists who aren’t even Earthers, and who in fact oppose the rule of the empire over the colonies… you’re going to give us the strongest weapons in your fleet and grant us nearly unlimited political power? You’re going to have to forgive me for thinking that sounds wacko.”

“Wacko?” asked Zachariah, confused.

“Wacko. Bonkers. The craziest damn thing I’ve ever heard.”

Zachariah’s smile faltered slightly, before it returned in full measure. “Granted, maybe it does sound a bit… wacko. But,” he said, gesturing with his finger. “That is exactly what I’m saying, Dean, Great Unifier strike me if I lie.”

“Get real,” said Dean, standing up. “The answer’s no. Can we leave now?”

Zachariah looked at Sam. “What about you Sam? Don’t tell me you’re not interested making things better for the colonies – in protecting Earthers and colonists alike from the Knights of Hell terrorists?”

Sam looked sorely tempted for only a moment, before he rose and said, “I’m not interested.”

“Hold on for just a moment, boys,” said Zachariah, a barely disguised edge of desperation in his voice. “We Earthers revere the archangels Michael and Lucifer. The fact that you have a 100% compatibility with the archangels means that the Great Unifier chose you two personally to lead the Empire. There may be some on Earth who dislike the fact that you are colonists, but the Great Unifier’s will is undeniable. I know, it sounds wacko, bit that’s what we believe,” said Zachariah, with a nervous smile.

“Are you going to let us out of here, or what?” asked Dean.

“You’re not our prisoner, Dean,” said Zachariah.

Dean snorted.

Zachariah pretended not to hear him. “You don’t have to make up your minds just yet. Think it over for a few days.”

“That’s not going to happen,” said Dean. “Can we leave now?”

“Yes, but we will speak again,” said Zachariah with a tone of finality.

Dean and Sam hurried out of the room. They ignored the dirty looks from the two guards they passed before rushing back to the habitat. Immediately after Dean shut the door behind them, he turned on Sam. “What happened?” he demanded to know.

“It was nothing, Dean,” said Sam evasively.

“You’ve got to give me more than that. I know you’re not afraid of heights.”

Sam gave an annoyed sigh. He thought about it for a moment, and then he said, “I guess… there was a moment while they were doing the test… I felt like…” he stopped.

Dean pushed him. “You felt like what?”

“Like… like the OS reached out for me. I don’t know how to explain it. I think I saw things… maybe I didn’t. I can’t explain it Dean,” he said, getting increasingly agitated.

“Okay, okay,” said Dean, dropping it.

“Did anything happen to you?” asked Sam.

“Nothing like that. I didn’t feel like anything. They ran the test, a number popped up on the screen, and that was it.”

“Dean…” began Sam. He paused as if searching for a tactful way to say something he knew Dean wouldn’t like. “Do really think it would be the worst idea ever to accept? To be an archangel pilot?”

“Are you fucking kidding me? Of course I think it’s a bad idea. Did you see how hard Zachariah was trying to sell it to us? It’s like he was trying to pawn a lemon off on us. At best he was keeping something important from us, but he could have been lying through his teeth for all we know.”

“Maybe…” said Sam, not fully convinced. “On the other hand, they must be desperate if they’re willing to search for pilots among the colonists. And maybe they really are willing to trust us with the archangels, because they believe that their god chose us. Who are we to judge their beliefs, Dean?”

“Zachariah doesn’t strike me as a true believer,” countered Dean. “Besides, I think Cas was trying to warn me that Zachariah was going to try to push us into being the pilots. He seemed anxious.”

“Right… Cas,” said Sam with annoyed look on his face. “You won’t trust any of the Earthers, but everything Cas says is scripture.”

“I didn’t say that,” said Dean angrily. “Look. He told me that we couldn’t be forced to synch with the archangels. That the only way we could synch with them, is if we allowed them into our heads. Zachariah never told us that, did he?”

“They can’t force us, but they can use our friends, our family, and even the colonies as leverage to persuade us to pilot the archangels. So, maybe we should just do it. If we give in quickly, they’ll think they’ve won, and then we can use the archangels for our purposes. There’s nothing saying that by piloting the archangels, we agree to be part of the Earth Army. The archangels could be the colonies’ ticket to freedom. Isn’t that what you’ve been fighting for this whole time? And no matter what you think, Dean, I want that too.”

“It’s too easy, Sam,” said Dean. “They wouldn’t let us pilot the archangels if they believed that we could use them against the Earth Empire. What are we missing here?”

“I don’t know,” said Sam, tiredly. “I don’t have any answers.”

“I need a drink,” said Dean, as the anxiety and the anger threatened to give way to a sense of helplessness. “If there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that more than ever Sammy, we have to find a way off this base. And soon.”

Sam nodded. “Listen, I’m going to turn in.”

“It’s still early.”

“I’m tired,” yelled Sam, snapping.

“Okay there crankypants,” said Dean, taken aback by his brother’s uncharacteristic angry outburst.

Sam raised his middle finger at Dean in response, before walking away to the dormitories.

“I guess I’ll just drink by myself,” said Dean, heading towards Don’s. He knew he should probably find Bobby and start working out a plan to get off the base, but all he wanted to do right now was drink his problems away. He missed real alcohol.

When he reached the bar, he found Lisa there.

“Dean!” she said waving to him. “I saved you a seat. I thought we might pick up where we left off.”

“Yeah sure,” said Dean with a grin. “My room’s upstairs so…”

“Cheeky,” said Lisa, grinning back. “Have a drink with me.” She patted the empty bar stool beside her. The she signalled Don and said, “I’d like whisky for my friend here. He looks like he’s had a bad day.”

“That’s an understatement,” said Dean.

“I’m just glad you came back,” said Lisa. “Eventually everyone came back from the hangar, except you and Sam were still missing. And everyone was talking about how you and your brother were tested to pilot the archangels and you both had a 100%...”

Don handed Dean an orange coloured drink.

“Not more orange juice,” protested Dean.

“This one’s fizzy,” said Don, apologetically. “So, you’re the future archangel Michael.”

“You’re not going to try to worship me, are you?” said Dean, rolling his eyes.

“Nah, Michael was kind of a dick,” said Don. “Actually, they all were, according to the history. Except for Gabriel, of course.”

“That’s not strictly true,” said a deep voice from behind them.

Dean sighed in frustration. He was never going to get laid. “Cas…” he said turning around. “What do you…” his voice died off as he saw that Cas had exchanged his white uniform for a hideous blue Hawaiian shirt covered in orange flowers and pineapples, and pair of loose fitting khakis.

Lisa smothered a laugh.

“Cas… what are you wearing?”

Cas responded, “I thought it appropriate to meet you in civilian dress for our conversation. Don assured me that this is typical dress for a colonist, though I suspect now from your facial expressions that I may have been… tricked.” He narrowed his eyes at Don.  

Don laughed out loud.

Cas looked like he was about ready to smite the bartender.

“What did you want?” asked Dean, distracting Cas from Don the Beachcomber.

“I need to talk to you,” he said.

“I’m kind of in the middle of something here,” he said indicating Lisa with a tilt of his head.

Cas looked at Lisa, confused for a moment. “I see… you wish to fraternize with this female.”

“Wow, you really know how to kill the mood,” said Dean. “Who the fuck talks like that?”

“Dean,” said Cas, frowning at him. “This is important.”

“Hey, Colonel Castiel,” said Don. “You’re making my customers nervous, and this habitat’s for colonists only, so if you don’t mind…” he made a walking gesture across the bar with his fingers.

Cas continued to glare at Don. If looks could kill…

Dean thought he’d better diffuse the situation. Lisa would have to wait. He stood up and grabbed Cas by the arm, saying, “Okay there Clint Eastwood. Let’s go talk.”

He gave Lisa an apologetic look, and she shrugged back at him. Maybe he still had a chance with her.

As they walked towards the exit of the habitat, Castiel said, “Thank you, Dean. It’s better that we talk in private – where we can’t be overheard.”

“So, there is surveillance in that habitat,” said Dean, as he followed Castiel into the hallway.

Castiel nodded.  They moved swiftly down the hallway until they reached one of the unmarked doors. He swiped his palm over the locking mechanism to open it. The door led to an identical hallway with more unmarked doors. The base was built like a maze.

“These are my quarters,” said Cas, opening the door in front of them. “There’s no surveillance here. Oh, and if you need a place to talk in private with the other colonists. The atmospheric net interferes with the equipment. All you have to is stand right beside it.”

“Good to know,” said Dean, examining Cas’ room. It was tiny. There was a single bed on the left wall that took the whole length of the room. On the right wall was a small desk with a computer and a chair. When the chair was wheeled out enough to sit on, it touched the edge of mattress. “Cas, why do you live in a box?”

“It keeps me from getting attached to material things. Everything I own is what I can fit under the bed and in my drawers. I only use the room for sleeping and working, and I’m not here very much anyway. Most of the work I do is around the base.”

“So, you have no life,” stated Dean.

Cas frowned at him. “I don’t understand what you mean.” He took a seat on his office chair, leaving Dean with the bed.

He plopped himself down and bounced a bit to test the mattress. “Not bad. I’ll trade you for mine.”

“Is your mattress uncomfortable?” asked Cas, concerned.

“It’s not a big deal, Cas.”

“Right,” said Cas, looking down.

“Right,” said Dean, confused at his friend’s timid behaviour.

An awkward silence followed.

Dean had to break the silence. “So… you said you needed to talk to me.”

Cas said roughly, “I need a drink.”

That was the last thing he expected to hear from Cas. And then the pilot opened one of the drawers under his desk and pulled out a bottle of caramel coloured liquid. The label said ‘whisky’ on it. 

“No. Fucking. Way.” said Dean. He was having trouble believing his eyes.

Cas mistook his Dean’s excitement and stammered, “I apologize Dean. I did not mean to offend…”

“Offend me? I could kiss you!” exclaimed Dean. “You’re going to share with me, right?”

The pilot blushed and looked away again. “Of course, Dean,” he said softly.

Dean suddenly felt embarrassed when he realized that Cas had taken his words literally, as he always did. He tried to backtrack. “I didn’t mean that I actually wanted to kiss you. I mean… I wasn’t trying to come onto you. You’re a great guy it’s just…”

“I understand Dean,” said Cas.

Was it Dean’s imagination, or did he look disappointed? And then he started to wonder, would it be so bad… kissing Cas? There was no question he was hot. And his lips… very plump, very kissable. And even though he could be scary as hell, sometimes he was… the only word he could come up with was ‘adorable.’

“Dean…” said Cas, bringing Dean back to reality. “I shouldn’t be telling you this but…” He paused anxiously.

Oh shit. Was this going to be a love confession or something? This was about to get awkward as hell. “Booze first,” demanded Dean. He needed something to calm the butterflies in his stomach.

Cas squinted at Dean. “Okay…”

Dean took the bottle from Cas and untwisted the cap. He sighed with relief when the sweet and bitter aromas hit his nostrils. Cas reached into the drawer for a glass, but before he could hand it to Dean, he was swigging it straight out of the bottle. The pilot raised an eyebrow, and then his face broke out into a smile.

“I needed that,” said Dean, wiping his lips and smiling back at Cas. He passed back the bottle, and Cas mimicked Dean, chugging it down.

“Easy there, Cas,” said Dean.

Cas wiped his mouth on his arm before he said, “My alcohol tolerance is probably better than yours, Dean.”

“I thought you Earthers were all about temperance.”

“Maybe I’m not a perfect soldier,” said Cas, with an edge of bitterness creeping into his voice.

Dean’s smile faded. Something was wrong. “Cas, talk to me.”

Cas put the bottle down on the desk, and then he leaned in to Dean. His breath smelled like whisky when he said, “Can I tell you something, if you promise not to tell a soul?”

“Okay…”

“I know you think I’m naïve, Dean. But I’m not always how I appear to be… I’m not the perfect Earth soldier or the perfect Earth citizen. I often have doubts… maybe the Great Unifier wasn’t what we though he was. Maybe we shouldn’t be trying to revive Project Archangel. I’ve never approved of how we treat colonists. I don’t think Earthers are superior. I’m not sure what’s right or what’s wrong anymore. I wish I’d never brought you here, Dean, and you shouldn’t have to make this decision.”

Unsure of what to say, Dean rested his hand on Cas’ shoulder.

Cas swallowed hard before he continued. “There’s something Zachariah hasn’t told you. I was forbidden to tell you, but you and Sam need to know. If you and Sam choose to synch with the archangels, it will change you. The archangel will consume you, taking part or all of your personality. You won’t be you anymore.”

Dean was taken aback. So that’s why Zachariah wasn’t worried about Sam and Dean defying the Earth Empire. Because if they synched with the archangels, then the archangels would control them. “Why are you telling me this, Cas?”

Cas looked away without answering.

Dean reached over him and grabbed the bottle of whisky. “Shit,” he said, before taking another drink.

“I’m sorry, Dean,” said Cas.

“Stop it,” said Dean, more sharply than he had intended. “Look at me Cas.”

Cas looked at him sadly.

Dean softened his eyes and he said, “I don’t blame you for any of this, so quit apologizing. You saved my life and you’ve been helping me since I got here.”

“But Dean. As you have pointed out, I am still your captor.”

“Then, if you want to change that, you know what you have to do. Help me and Sam get out of here, before they try to use us to kill people.”

Cas frowned. “That’s… a lot to ask.”

“I get it, Cas. If it was just me, I wouldn’t ask, but… it’s my fault Sammy is in this mess. They took him because of my involvement in the colony militia. It’s my job to protect him.”

“Dean… I will consider it. I need time to think…”

They looked at each other, neither wanting to look away. The silence wasn’t exactly uncomfortable, but Dean began to get antsy. To break the serious tension, he smiled and joked, “I hope you have more of this,” he said lifting up the bottle of whisky. “Because I think we’re both going to need a hell of a lot more before this is all over.”

“This is the last one,” said Cas. “It was hard enough to smuggle in two bottles. I drank first bottle on the night you were injured.”

This was going to get heavy again, and he did not want that. “You’re telling me, you drank a whole bottle in one night – by yourself.”

Cas smirked. “I told you I had superior alcohol tolerance.”

“You’re full of surprises Cas. Kind of like this room. All military on the outside, and rebel on the inside. What else do you have in those drawers?”

Cas swiped the bottle from Dean and began to drink again. Then he passed it back to Dean who began to drink some more, until his head started to swim. When Cas tried to get the bottle back, Dean held it to his chest, so Cas went on to the bed to wrestle it away from Dean. The Earther nearly spilled it, but he held on and drank until Dean grabbed it back from him.

Dean drank until he couldn’t see straight and he fell to the oblivion of sleep.

He came back to himself slowly. His head was fuzzy and his mouth felt thick and papery dry. He could feel a weight against his side and his arm was completely asleep and trapped under something heavy. Turning his head, he got an eyeful of Cas whose face was about inch from Dean’s. He was drooling on the pillow they shared.

Carefully, Dean extracted his arm, trying not to wake him up. He tried to remember how they’d gotten into this position in the first place, but he couldn’t quite remember. Judging by the sticky mess on his shirt, the last of the whisky ended up on him instead of his mouth. When he stepped off the bed, he slipped on the empty whisky bottle on the floor and went crashing into the desk.

“Wha…” Cas sat up straight in his bed, still half a sleep. He blinked a few times before he turned to look at Dean, who was trying to get up without causing further damage to the desk and the computer.

“Sorry,” muttered Dean.

Cas had a bad case of bed head and it wasn’t at all unattractive.

“You need to get back,” stated Cas.

“I know that,” replied Dean. He smelled like whisky bottle and probably looked even worse. “What time is it?”

The pilot had been staring into space and it took a moment for him to register his words. Finally he moved and grabbed his tablet from the desk. His eyes widened and he said, “I never set my alarm.”

Dean had always pictured Cas as one of those people who always knew exactly what time to wake up. But obviously, Cas was not a morning person.

“I’m late,” said Cas stupidly. “You’re late too,” he added.

“You know my schedule?” Dean grinned.

“I make the schedules,” said Cas, then he shook his head. “We don’t have time for this Dean. We’re late. You never returned to the habitat. General Zachariah is on the base.”

“I get that Cas, but there’s nothing we can do about it now, so there’s no point worrying about it. If Zachariah asks, tell him you were taking the initiative, by pretending to be my friend and plying me with alcohol to convince me to pilot the archangel.”

“I told you,” said Cas narrowing his eyes. “That is entirely your choice.”

Dean rolled his eyes. “I get that Cas. I’m telling you to lie.”

The pilot pulled out a fresh uniform from under the bed. Dean took that as his cue to leave.

“Wait,” said Cas. “You’ll need me to get through the doors.” He started to unbutton his Hawaiian shirt.

Dean turned around and waited.

They walked very quickly down the halls until Dean got to the habitat. Fortunately, he didn’t run into anyone he knew as he crept upstairs to wash up.


	8. The Glitch

Sam watched through the windshield down at the protesting crowd, small as ants. The screaming and yelling from so far down below was not as loud as his heavy breaths, which felt like they didn’t belong to him at all. And then everything was dark – sound and sight cut off.

The next thing he saw was fire erupting through the crowd. Angry yells turned into howls of pain, fear and despair. His own voice howled with them. And then he was flying through the air, the ground becoming smaller and smaller in his vision.

A voice yelled through his intercom. “Lucifer! What have you done?”

Sam woke with a start, panting and sweating.

“What in god’s name?” The voice came from Bobby. He was rushing towards Sam.

“It’s okay,” said Sam, once he found his voice. “It was a nightmare.”

“A nightmare?” Bobby looked incredulously. “It sounded like you were being murdered.”

Everyone in the room was now stirring, wide awake after Sam’s outburst. However, there was no sound from beneath his bed.

“Where’s Dean?” asked Sam.

“I was going to ask you the same question. I haven’t seen him since they took him to get tested. It would have been nice if he’d checked in at some point.”

“Last I remember, we came back to the habitat and he headed for the bar. I went straight to bed.” Maybe he found a woman to sleep with? But he would have gotten kicked out of a women’s dorm. What if Dean had gotten himself in trouble or killed. No… the Earth military wouldn’t have killed him. They needed both of them to pilot the archangels.

Bobby walked back towards his bunk. “I’m sure he’ll turn up,” he said, trying to reassure Sam.

“Right,” said Sam, trying to calm himself. It was too soon to worry. Maybe he was just called in for a special shift or Zachariah wanted to talk to him some more.

Trying to put his brother’s disappearance out of his head, he washed up and headed down for breakfast. He briefly sought out Don, but the bar wasn’t open yet, so he was wherever he went when the bar wasn’t open. Finally, Sam headed for the food line.

Jo was slopping down the watered-down rehydrated potato paste they referred to as ‘mashed potatoes’ onto trays as the colonists passed, while Ellen doled out a spiced protein cake shaped like a sausage. When Sam reached them, he asked about Dean. “Have either of you seen Dean lately? He didn’t come in last night. Last I saw him he was heading to the bar.”

Jo shook her head. “Maybe you should ask _Lisa_ ,” she said with distaste. “Apparently, he’s trying to make her his latest conquest.”

“Who’s Lisa,” asked Sam.                            

She pointed the brunette out using her scoop, splashing potato on Sam’s face.

“Thanks,” said Sam, half-heartedly, wiping the goop on his face.

Ellen slipped him an extra sausage as she said, “Word is going around about you boys and the archangels. You aren’t thinking about joining the Earth military, are you?”

Sam scoffed. “You know us better than that, Ellen.”

“I know you might do it if you thought you’d be protecting the colonists, but the last thing we need to do is give the Earth army new weapons.”

“But...” he leaned in and said quietly, “What if they could be our weapons?”

“If you think the Earth army would let you get away with that, you’re more naïve than I thought. Now go eat your sausage. We’ll keep an eye out for Dean.”

Those words were a dismissal. Sam went towards Lisa who was currently surrounded by other colonists.

“Hey,” said Sam, catching your attention. “Are you… Lisa?”

“Have we met?” asked Lisa with a broad smile.

“I’m Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester’s brother.”

“Well, tell Dean he’s running out of chances.”

“What do you mean?” asked Sam.

Lisa began, “We were having drinks last night, and we were about to – you know. That creepy colonel guy – Castiel – he comes in wearing, I kid you not, a Hawaiian shirt. He said wanted to talk to Dean, and Don kicked him out of the habitat. Yep, so Dean stood me up – for a creepy Earther.”

Sam had to take a moment to let it sink. His brother had gone off with Castiel? He wanted to believe that it was something official, maybe a second interrogation? But then, for Castiel to come here out of uniform suggested something more personal. Maybe Zachariah had ordered him to get close to Dean and convince him to pilot the archangel. And no doubt Dean would buy it. His brother could really be an idiot sometimes. Given that Dean wasn’t back yet, they were probably fucking. Dean really would fuck anyone – even his jailer. And then he let everyone worry about him and…

Everything was red. The world was on fire and there was an Earth-piercing howl. He was heading towards the Earth, crashing down and tearing into a city with blades of ice and fire. Everything would burn. It had to. The world had to burn.

Sam snapped back into body. Everyone had stopped eating to turn to look at him, and he realized the tray he had been carrying was now on the floor.

“Are you okay?” asked Lisa, part concerned, part scared.

“Yeah,” said Sam. His hands were shaking. He was not okay. “Uh… I’ll just clean this up…”

Ellen came to his side. “It’s okay Sam. I got this this.”

“Thank you,” said Sam. In any case, he wasn’t hungry anymore and he wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. For once, he was thrilled to get to his prison job.

Sam set out for the operations room for the base, otherwise known as ops. Typically, he would find Uriel, Castiel, or another senior officer who give him some assignment such as delivering messages or goods around the base, or doing some kind of inventory. Essentially he would do the menial work that the Earthers didn’t want to do. The advantage of his job was that he had more access to the base than others, and he was making a map in his head of the base that they would eventually be able to use for their escape plan.

Today, when he walked into ops it was Zachariah waiting for him.

“Hello Sam Winchester,” said Zachariah. His attempt at a pleasant tone made Sam bristle with annoyance. “I thought we might have a talk.”

“Well, you’ve heard my answer already regarding Lucifer. I don’t think there’s anything more to discuss.” He wanted to get his assignment and go, but he knew Zachariah wouldn’t let him go so easily.

“I understand that, Sam, but if you’ll excuse me for saying so, you seemed more open to the idea than your brother.”

“I’m not going to do it,” said Sam with an air of certainty.

Of course, Zachariah was right. Sam was thinking about the offer, and not because he wanted to serve the Earth army, but because he wanted to, for once have the power to actually do something – to effect change. Unlike Dean, he didn’t believe the colony militia could actually achieve independence for the colonies. Sam wanted to push for the cause from within the local government, but he was still a low level bureaucrat with no real power, and as a colonist, he probably always would be. He knew Dean and the other colony militia felt like what he did was useless, and that he wasn’t really part of the cause. Though he would never admit it out loud to Dean, sometimes he did doubt his path. Maybe he could have done more good as a member of militia. After Jess had died… he seriously thought about it, but he had decided to stick to his guns. He didn’t need Dean making decisions for him – not then and not now.

An image of fire flashed in his head, accompanied with the smell of smoke. It passed so quickly, he barely registered it.

“Sam?” said Zachariah, bringing him back to the present.

Sam wondered how long he had been staring into space. Quite a few people were looking at him now.

The Earth general then asked him, “What can I do to change that no to a yes? There must be something you want. All you have to do is name your price.” 

At that moment, Sam had a strong desire to say yes. He would prove that Dean couldn’t tell him what to do. For once, he would be the hero, not his more popular and more loved older brother. He would free the colonies, and he wouldn’t need Dean’s help to do it. Sam opened his mouth, ready to demand the freedom of the colonies in exchange for his agreement, and then he stopped himself.

“Yes?” asked Zachariah. “What is it Sam?”

Sam shook his head. What was he thinking? As soon as he opened the negotiations, the Earthers would have him. Agreeing to pilot Lucifer at this point would be an impulsive decision that he might regret. He didn’t understand the consequences of that choice. He didn’t know enough. It was all too good to be true, and though he hated to admit it, Dean was right. The Earthers wouldn’t be willing to give them anything unless they believed they were getting the better deal out of the negotiation. Now was not the time for hasty decisions.

Sam told the general loudly and clearly, “I said no. I will not pilot Lucifer.”

“I understand,” said Zachariah. The smile never faded from his face. “I’ll ask you again when you’ve had more time to think about it.”

Mercifully, Zachariah gave Sam some messages to take to the factory and let him go.

When his nearly interminable shift finally ended, Sam returned to the habitat. Dean was already at the bar, having a conversation with Don the bartender. Sam was overcome with the sudden impulse to grab him by the back of his collar and yank him off the stool, to wipe the fake grin off his face.

“Hey, Sammy!” said Dean cheerfully.

Sam came back to himself suddenly, wondering where the strange impulse had come from. He didn’t hate his brother… why was he getting so angry?

“Earth to Sam,” said Dean, annoyingly.

“Where the hell have you been?” blurted Sam.

“Yeah, sorry about that, man. Cas had honest to god actual whiskey. We polished off it off in his quarters, and I guess I fell asleep.”

“Are you kidding me?” yelled Sam. “You could have been dead, or being interrogated. We were all fucking worried about you and you were, what… you know, I always joked that you would sleep with anyone, but a member of the Earth military… really Dean?”

“Hey,” said Dean, rising from his seat angrily. “It wasn’t like that. Like a said. I got drunk and lost track of time—”

“The fact that you’re basically an alcoholic does not make this better Dean.”

 “I got drunk, Sam. I’m not—”

“Shut up! I don’t want to hear it.”

“Well, what do you want me to say? Fucking hell. You know, I got some….” He looked around suspiciously and lowered his voice, “I got some good information out of it, and if you stopped yelling at me for two seconds I would tell you…”

“So, what? Are you some kind of spy now? Pumping the enemy for information.”

Dean locked his jaw, seething with anger. He looked like he was ready to punch Sam.

Sam’s nostrils filled with the thick smell of smoke, he could hear screaming that he knew wasn’t really there. He tried to shove the distraction away with his mind while yelling over the sound, “You know what Dean? I’m thinking about accepting the offer.”

In that moment, Dean went from angry to scared. “Sam, you can’t.”

“You can’t tell me what to do anymore, Dean. I’m not a kid.”

Sam could see Dean reining in his anger, with a certain desperation in his eyes.

“Sammy… synching with an archangel changes you. When you synch, you take on a part of the archangel’s personality. They can control you.”

The voices instantly stopped and the anger faded as Sam began to contemplate the ramifications of his brother’s statement. It made sense now – why Zachariah was willing to give him anything he wanted in exchange for a yes. Zachariah believed that Lucifer would take over Sam, so anything that Zachariah offered, he could take back after the synching. But that assumed that Sam would be completely taken over. It was called synching, wasn’t it? Wouldn’t that imply that he would still exist, but that his mind would be linked with the entity Lucifer?

“Are you sure that the archangels would control us? What did Cas say exactly?” He asked, gripping his brother’s shoulders.

“He said that the archangel would consume use – that it would take part or all of our personality and we wouldn’t be us anymore.”

“So, he didn’t say that the archangel would necessarily be in control of us, did he?”

“Well no, but… did you hear what I just said? You wouldn’t be you anymore.”

“Maybe not entirely, but it’s possible I would still be there. I would still exist. And maybe I could control the mobile suit, Dean. Maybe I could use the mobile suit to protect the colonies.”

“Or, you could lose control and destroy them!” yelled Dean. Then he lowered his voice and said. “You are not even contemplating this. You can’t be. You’re fucking insane to even think it, Sam. I am not losing you over this, you understand?” He shook Sam’s arm. “Do you understand Sam?”

Sam was sick of fighting, so he decided to give Dean the answer he wanted to hear. “I understand, Dean. I was just considering it, you know, theoretically.”

“So you’re not going to Zachariah and agree to pilot Lucifer?”

“Of course not, Dean. We already agreed we’d say no, right? We’ll find another way to save the colonies,” said Sam, though he was starting to doubt his earlier conviction that the way to protect the colonies and earn their independence lay outside of force. Piloting Lucifer was risky, but he couldn’t rule it out altogether.

Dean didn’t look entirely convinced, but he finally let go of Sam, with a heavy sigh. It seemed that they were both tired of fighting.

Finally, Dean said, “It’s time that we started seriously planning a way out of this shit hole. Cas says that if we talk next to the atmospheric shield, it will distort the audio surveillance. So, now that we know we can talk away from prying ears and eyes…”

“Assuming Castiel wasn’t lying to you,” qualified Sam.

“He wasn’t,” said Dean without hesitation. “We have to get the rest of the gang and start putting together the information we have.”

“Yes,” agreed Sam. At least there was something they could agree on.

In unspoken agreement, they went their separate ways to find Bobby and others. Dean made his way up to their dorm, so Sam went to the eating area.

One minute he was walking, and the next minute he was flying through the air in a mobile suit.

A voice came over the intercom. “Lucifer! What have you done?”

Lucifer looked down at the destruction below him. He knew he should feel something about it, but somehow, it all felt right. “They were enemies, Michael. I was disposing of them.”

“They were civilians!” cried Michael. “Lucifer – brother – there is something wrong with your OS. You need to eject from your mobile suit and let Doctor Shurley examine it. I’m sure there’s a way to fix this…”

“I understand now Michael. It is clear to me. You want the power all for yourself. You can’t stand the fact that I might be stronger than you.”

“Have you are forgotten our purpose brother? This is no place for petty squabbles. We are supposed to save the world.”

“I’ve forgotten nothing, _brother_ ,” he spat the word. “I’ve simply realized the truth: this world doesn’t deserve to be saved!” With those words he charged at Michael with his twin swords of ice and fire.

Michael parried the blow on a large golden shield. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”

Lucifer continued to charge, mercilessly. He flung Michael into the city below, causing a swathe of destruction through it.

He heard Michael through the intercom, but he was no long addressing him. “I need backup. Raphael. Gabriel. Do you copy?”

“How dare you!” yelled Lucifer. He put away his right blade and withdrew his energy rifle, firing it indiscriminately in Michael’s direction, as he flew farther from Earth, firing over and over again. He laughed as he saw the wild gashes he’d carved into the Earth.

He could hear Michael’s yell as his mobile seat ascended through the clouds swinging the giant golden blade. Lucifer engaged his thrusters, barely escaping the blow.

“You would kill your brother?” yelled Lucifer, charging at Michael, ready to take him down to the Earth and crush him onto the surface.

“Nooooooo…” Michael thrust out the golden sword at Lucifer’s head.

As Lucifer’s vision went black, Sam came to himself with a start.

There was someone hitting his cheek and calling out to him. Sam blindly pushed the hands aside as he sat up. The realization hit him. “I remember everything.”

He hadn’t realized he’d said it out loud until a woman asked, “You remember what?”

Suddenly, the world came back into focus. He was looking at a beautiful brown haired girl with dark eyes. She gave him a slightly lopsided grin and said, “Welcome back to the world – tall, dark and handsome.”

“Who’re you?” asked Sam. His speech had come out slurred.

“Me?” she said flipping her hair back. “My name’s Ruby.”

“Sammy!” the voice came from Dean, who was rushing to his side with Bobby and Ash behind him.

Sam was suddenly feeling extremely tired. He tried to say something to Dean, but when he closed his eyes for a moment, the world went black.

 


	9. History

“Sammy!” yelled Dean as he rushed to his brother’s side with Bobby and Ash following. He kneeled down and slapped his face a bit to try to bring him back around, but Sam was out like a light. He was pale, but breathing steadily.

Dean noticed the strange woman standing over him. “What happened?” He asked her.

“One minute he was walking normally. Then he was staring into space for a good minute, and then the yelling and the passing out,” said the woman, and then she joked, “Whatever he’s on, I want some.”

Dean glared at the woman. What the fuck was she joking for? Something was seriously wrong with Sam. For a moment, he almost considered getting Meg, but he had to shake himself. Now was not the time to be trusting Earthers. They were the ones who did this to Sammy in the first place. Cas had promised him that the tests wouldn’t have any effects – another Earther lie.

Dean turned to Ash and Bobby. “Come on. Let’s get him back to the room.”

Dean grabbed his arms while Ash and Bobby each grabbed a leg. As they began to lift, Sam thrashed against them.

“What the hell?” yelled Sam, extricating himself from their grips.

“You were out, man,” said Dean.

Sam pulled himself off the ground, shaking himself off. For a moment, he stood there, seemingly lost in thought. Dean feared he was about to have another episode, but instead, his baby brother told them, “We need to meet now. Get Jo and Ellen.”

They assembled at the back of the habitat, close enough to the atmospheric net that they could hear the buzz. Outside, Dean could see snow falling on the overcast white day. It hurt his eyes to look at the whiteness outside, but he couldn’t feel any of the chill. Just to assure himself that it really was as cold as it looked, he stuck his bare arm through the net. His arm was instantly covered with goose bumps. He tried to catch some snowflakes in his palm but they melted on contact with his skin.

Sam’s voice cut through his reverie. “I guess you’ve all noticed that I’ve been acting a bit strange lately, but it’s okay now.”

Dean looked at his brother skeptically.

“I understand what’s been happening to me,” said Sam. “When I was hooked up to the archangel, it made contact with my mind. It was trying to tell me something.”

“You talk about it like’s it human,” said Dean. “It’s just an operating system.”

“It’s an artificial intelligence and it contains the memories of its former pilot – memories it was trying to convey to me, in order to warn me.”

“Warn you about what?”

“About why I shouldn’t synch with Lucifer…”

“Great, you weren’t planning to anyway,” said Dean.

“Listen,” said Sam. “I’ve got to tell you why. You all probably know some of this story, but now I know pieces you don’t and maybe… the Earthers don’t even know all of it.” He paused to look at the others.

“Well,” said Bobby. “Are you going to tell us any time soon?”

“As you all know, 300 years ago our ancestors spotted an asteroid headed for Earth and determined that without intervention, it would collide with the Earth and lead to the end of life on the planet. At that time the Unified Salvation Task Force was founded by the United Nations to deal with it, and Doctor Chuck Shurley was put in charge. Doctor Shurley’s the guy who would later be known as the Great Unifier. His plan for stopping the asteroid was Project Archangel – the construction of 4 giant mobile suits that could travel in space and stop the asteroid before it could reach the planet. However, to be effective against the asteroid, they had to be the largest mobile suits ever built. The first problem was powering the archangels. Dr. Shurley and Dr. Noah collaborated to develop nuclear fission reactors that could be used to power the archangels. These are the same reactors Dr. Noah used to power each of the colonies. The second problem proved more challenging: the connection between the pilot and the suit. Whereas Dr. Noah argued that the suits should be unmanned robots – equipped with the most advanced AI operating system, it was Dr. Shurley who insisted that a human pilot was essential in order to make the necessary judgement call about the situations. He came up with the idea of synching the AI with a human pilot, and began to develop the highly experimental OS to accomplish this. However, Dr. Noah was highly skeptical about the plan. He was concerned that the OS would fail, so he began work on the backup plan: the construction of self-sustaining off-Earth colonies. Doctor Shurley’s Project Archangel had a secondary objective. The archangels were also to be used as weapons – essentially as deterrents to civil unrest. Even before the asteroid, the Earth was dying – climate change, over farming and overpopulation had led to mass food shortages and famines. The world population was falling, and though people understood the need for the Unification Task Force, they began to object to the sheer amount of resources being diverted to the project and many began to believe the asteroid was a conspiracy by the U.N. to bully the nations into giving them money to create weapons they could use to control the planet. In fact, the archangels were sent in to quash several protests, but they were only ever intended to cause fear. Their weapons were never supposed to be used on the populace. But that’s when the defect in the Lucifer OS came to light… Lucifer lost control and began attacking citizens. Thousands died in the attack, and thousands more when Michael fought Lucifer and eventually drove his sword into the pilot’s cabin, killing him.”

“But… then why the fuck do they want revive Lucifer?” asked Dean.

“Maybe they don’t know,” suggested Jo. “You have to tell them,” she said to Sam.

“How can they not know?” asked Sam. “Raphael knows. He’s synched with an archangel and he’s leading the council, so Project Archangel’s being revived on his order.”

Jo argued once again. “Maybe he hasn’t told anyone. Maybe the guy’s crazy.”

“They’re all crazy,” stated Ellen. Dean knew she was speaking about the Earthers, and he wholeheartedly agreed.

Bobby interjected, “As enlightening as this all, it doesn’t get us out of here. We need to focus.”

“Yeah,” agree Dean.

“Look… I agree on one hand,” said Sam. “But they aren’t ever going to let Dean and I go. They’re never going to stop chasing us. If we escape together, we’ll be putting you in danger.”

Dean’s heart sank. Of course Sam was right. They couldn’t put the others in danger like that.

“If you’re saying what I think your saying, boy. We aren’t leaving you two behind,” said Bobby. “And don’t you dare even suggest it.”

“He’s right, Bobby,” said Dean.

“Look,” said Ellen. “What Bobby is saying is that we go together or not at all. Do we agree?”

Jo, Ash and Bobby nodded.

“And that’s final,” said Ellen.

Dean looked at Sam and they’re eyes met. He could see that they were in agreement. They would play along for now, but they weren’t going to put the others in danger.

“Fine,” said Dean. “So, what’s the plan?”

The group spent an hour putting together the information they’d began to assemble. Between them all, they knew the base, but the key issues were gaining access to the hangar, and bypassing the security on a transport ship, and then flying the ship out without being noticed. If Ash could get into a transport ship to look at the security, he believed he could do something about it. The trouble is, there was no way for Ash to get access to the hangar.

“When it comes down to it, the central problem is access,” said Sam. “But it won’t be a problem if we have Castiel on our side.”

Five sets of eyes looked at Dean, expectantly. “I’ve asked him, but… you know it’s a lot to ask. We’re asking him to betray his fucking planet. I don’t think it’s going to happen…”

“He may not go willingly,” agreed Sam, “But he doesn’t have to agree. You can get him to lower his guard, and get close enough to him to hold him hostage.”

Dean revolted at the suggestion. He couldn’t do that to Cas. He wanted to shoot the idea down, but everyone was looking to him right now and… how could he place Cas’ life above theirs? He was their captor after all. It was the logical suggestion and he knew Sam was right. Still… “I know Cas will come around,” said Dean. “Just let me talk to him… before we make any decisions about this.”

There was mass agreement, and then they went their separate ways.

That night, Dean sat around Don’s, hoping against hope that Cas would show up. He had no way of contacting the Earther. Dean watched Sam flirt with the woman from earlier that day. What was her name… Ruby? He didn’t like her.

The night was a bust. Lisa tried to flirt with him, but he was too anxious thinking about the conversation that he was going to have Cas, and not to mention that fact that he and Sam were essentially trapped here. If they left, they were going to be chased forever? But how could they stay? If the Earthers forced Sam into Lucifer, then everyone would be in danger. And then what if… what if Dean was the only one who could stop Lucifer, by piloting Michael? Could Dean really kill his brother if he had to? To save the Earth? To save the colonies? It wasn’t a question Dean could answer. He could never let it get to that point. They had to get the hell away from archangels. He had to talk to Castiel – to convince him to let them out.

Frustratingly, the Earther was elusive. He never showed that night and he wasn’t in the hangar the next day when Dean showed up for work. He didn’t show up that night either, but the next day, something happened: more colonists were called to the hangar to be tested for the archangels. Clearly, since Sam and Dean weren’t working out, they were looking for backup pilots. Dean didn’t know whether to feel relieved or more anxious.  

Finally, that night Castiel showed up at the habitat.

“Cas, where the hell have you been?” asked Dean upon seeing him.

The pilot looked disheveled and his eyes were red-rimmed. “Dean,” he said. “We need to talk.”

“Yeah, we do,” said Dean. “But not here.”

He led them to a secluded area at the back of the habitat, where the hum of the atmospheric net was the only sound. They stumbled on a couple who were necking. When one of them looked up and spotted Castiel, they suddenly decided they had somewhere else they needed to be.

Once they were gone, Cas opened his mouth to speak, but Dean cut him off before he could began.

“Listen Cas, before you say anything, I have to know…” He stepped into Cas’ space, and narrowed his eyes at the pilot, intending to come off threatening. “Did you know about Lucifer?”

“What about Lucifer?” Cas looked more confused than threatened. “I did not know that your brother would test positively. How could I?”

“No, Cas. Did you know that the Lucifer OS was defective?”

“Defective? That’s impossible Dean. The archangels stopped the asteroid. There was never anything in the history about Lucifer being defective.”

“The original pilot of Lucifer went crazy and it started killing civilians before Michael had to kill the pilot. The rest of the archangels had to stop the asteroid without Lucifer.”

Cas seemed to be searching Dean’s eyes for some sign of a lie. “Who told you this?” he demanded.

“Sam did. The Lucifer archangel made contact with him during the test and left him the memories of his past life. The archangel was trying to warn Sam against synching with it. That’s why Sam had been acting so weird. He kept being assaulted by memories he couldn’t understand.”

“That can’t be true,” insisted Cas. “The test is merely a superficial link with the archangel. There isn’t supposed to be any communication between the subject and the archangel. Perhaps your brother was having a bad dream.”

Dean grabbed his arm. “Listen to me Cas.”

Cas stared at him silently.

“It’s true,” said Dean, staring back at him.

Neither said anything for a long moment, before Dean took his arm away.

Cas’ adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed with difficulty. His eyes were sad as he said, “Dean… if that’s true then, it’s more important than ever that you and Sam escape.”

“So you’ll help us?” asked Dean, hopefully.

Cas looked away. He said, barely audibly, “I can’t.”

Dean’s heart sank. For some crazy reason, he’d believed in Cas even if it was just for a moment. He felt betrayed, but it was unreasonable for Dean to feel that way. Cas was an officer in the Earth armed forces and he barely knew Dean. He didn’t owe them anything. So why did he feel like his heart had just been ripped out?

When Cas was able to meet Dean’s eyes again, the pilot looked equally crushed. “I want to help you, Dean. But Zachariah is sending me away. He is questioning my sympathies. He believes I have gotten too close the colonists in my charge. You.”

Dean swallowed nervously at the intensity of Castiel’s gaze. He couldn’t seem to find his voice.

Cas pulled his eyes off him and said, “I was demoted to major, and I will be transferred off base as soon as the paperwork goes through. Uriel is to take my place. Zachariah has been keeping me busy on constant patrol to keep me away from you.”

“Fuck,” said Dean, putting his head in his hand. What else could he say? Cas was their best chance at getting off this base, and Dean didn’t want him to go. Dean would never see him again, and he would lose the only bearable part about being here. “When do you leave?”

“Tomorrow, I think…” said Cas, sighing heavily and looking out towards the snow covered field.

Cas looked so lost. Dean was seized with the urge to put his arms around the pilot to comfort him, but he didn’t move. He barely breathed.

It was Cas who moved first, breaking the silence as he turned back towards Dean. “I have to go, before Zachariah sends out his hounds.”

Dean didn’t have a chance to respond before Cas practically flew away, heading out of the habitat without so much as a goodbye.

When Dean returned to the bar with a heavy heart, Sam and Ruby were gone. Ash was sitting in their place. He told Dean, “Sam told me to warn you. Wait a bit before you go back to the room.”

Dean gritted his teeth unpleasantly at the thought of his baby brother with that tramp. He didn’t say as much, because he knew he was being unfair. Still, that Ruby chick rubbed him the wrong way.

He had never needed a drink more than at this moment. The pink concoction in the dainty glass Don placed before him felt like a personal insult and Dean was tempted it to chuck it at the wall of the bar, and hear the satisfying crash of smashing glass. But he didn’t.

Ash, oblivious to Dean’s crisis, said to him, “I heard that Nick didn’t come back?”

“Who’s Nick?” asked Dean, frowning at the mulleted man.

“A guy from Bristol colony. He went to get tested for the archangels, but he didn’t come back with the others.’

“Good for him,” spat Dean.

Ash raised his eyebrows and inched away from Dean.

At least if Nick tested positively for one of the archangels, then he or Sam wouldn’t have to pilot it. It was too soon to feel any relief at the situation. At least one of them was still on the hook for piloting an archangel, but for not, Dean couldn’t muster the will to care. Caring was something that would have to wait for tomorrow. He raised the glass to his lips and drank.


	10. Attack

When Dean went to work in the hangar the next day, he could see a lot of activity around Lucifer. It looked like they were fitting her up for a new pilot.

Dean was working on Uriel’s seraph with an Earther mechanic.  

“So, what’s the story there?” he asked the other mechanic.

“They found a pilot,” he replied. “Or close enough – 75% compatibility.”

“Less talking, more working,” said Uriel as he passed them. He was hovering around watching them like hawks.

“We’re just about done here,” said the Earther mechanic to Uriel.

“You’d better not have messed it up, Winchester,” said the officer, practically snarling at Dean.

Dean made a kiss face and winked at the pilot, to mess with him.

“That may work on Castiel, but I’m not interested in space trash.”

Dean snorted. He opened his mouth for a clever retort, but the Earther mechanic intervened and said, “Dean Winchester. Please ask the foreman for your next assignment.”

“Yessir,” said Dean, giving the mechanic a sarcastic salute. He threw one over to Uriel before he descended back to the floor of the hangar.

He was walking towards the foreman when the door connecting the hangar to the rest of the base opened. At the same time that he saw a bloodied Sam in the doorway, a large explosion threw him off his feet. Two smaller explosions followed as Dean scrambled to his feet, racing towards Sam. His brother was using the doorway to get back on his feet.

He could see Sam yelling at Dean, but he couldn’t hear over the sounds of the battle raging in the sky. The fighters were scrambling towards their mobile suits. Sam was bowled over by foot soldiers who ran inside the base. Overhead, Dean spotted several mobile suits that didn’t belong to the base, firing into the hangar at the unmanned ships.

Dean finally reached Sam, who was back on his feet. He grabbed his brother to make sure he was still alive and okay.

Sam told him, “It’s not my blood.”

“What the hell happened to you?”

“Ops was taken. It was Meg. I passed her in the hallway as she headed into ops. She gunned them all down before they could call out. I assumed she sabotaged all the equipment after that. I didn’t stick around to find out. I ran the hell away and then I tripped over a dead soldier. I should be dead, Dean.”

“Oh my god… Cas…”

Sam shook his head. “He wasn’t there.”

Dean remembered that his seraph had been missing this morning. He was probably on patrol.

“It seemed like she wasn’t interested in killing colonists,” said Dean, “Only Earther soldiers.”

“A whole lot more than soldiers are going to die, today,” said Sam, angrily. “She’s probably planning to take out the whole base. We have to assume she’s a Knight of Hell. That’s how they operate, casualties be damned.”

“Jo… Ellen… Ash…” said Dean. “Bobby…” He scanned the hangar. He knew Bobby was in here somewhere, but he couldn’t see him. The hangar was probably the safest place to be, with all the military grade vehicles to hide behind. “We gotta get to the kitchens,” said Dean.

“Right,” agreed Sam, as he led the way through the door, down the hall.

They were not stopped or questioned as they ran through the hall. If they were going to escape the base, they would have to do it now, before there was no base to escape from.

When they entered the habitat, Dean was shocked by the destruction. The dorms above the habitat were now on the ground level, and body parts sticking out here and there. He tried not to look too closely. They had to skirt around the debris to make it to the door that led to kitchens, passing a flattened structure that had once been Don the Beachcomber’s.

The door to the kitchens was already open. Or rather, the door was half crumpled and hanging off a hinge. Sam kicked through it. When he got through the door, he stopped, seeming to freeze. Dean couldn’t see around him.

“What is it?” asked Dean, pushing past his brother.

The kitchen had been ground zero for an explosion. Parts of the kitchen were still on fire, and everything that wasn’t was covered in black soot. Even the metal counters were partially melted, taking on swooping artistic shapes. And the worst of part of this grotesque gallery were the blackened, disfigured statues, taking the shape of their victims’ last moments. One larger and one smaller statue were huddled together behind a counter.

“Jo… Ellen…” said Dean. His voice came out quiet and raspy. He couldn’t tell it was them, not for sure, but part of him just knew.

Dean had to slap himself to get out of his stupor. He grabbed Sam and shook him. “We have to keep going,” he said loudly and clearly. “We’ll check the factory. There could be survivors somewhere.”

Sam nodded mutely.

As they ran back through the habitat, a few survivors were stirring. When Dean saw them, he yelled at them, “Come on. We need to get out of here. Head to the hangar!”

The surviving colonists came alive at those words, and began to move towards the exit of the habitat purpose. As Sam and Dean ran down the hallway, towards the factory, they nearly ran headlong into the short stature of Don the bartender.

“Woah… hey… Winchester brothers. Where are you going?”

“The factory,” said Dean.

“The factory’s gonzo, kaput, a freakin’ crater on the planet.”

Ash had been in there. Ash was no more. They were all going to die here. Dean shook his head. He wasn’t going to let the panic take him. He had to get Sam out of here, alive.

“Fine,” said Dean. “We’re going back to the hangar and we’re going to get ourselves a ship and get off this fucking base.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” said Don, following them as they raced back towards the hangar.

They didn’t pass anyone in the hall. As Dean stepped through the door, he saw Lucifer rising from the floor of the hangar. They all watched spell bound as the giant mobile suit came to life. Its movements were smooth as it rose, hovering above the base for a few seconds before the sword handles in its fists lit up, becoming blades of red fire and blue fire. And then it darted towards an enemy mobile suit, dispatching it with an easy stroke of its blade. As pieces of the mobile suit dropped from the sky, Lucifer was already moving towards the next enemy.

A voice behind him said, “We’re saved.”

Dean hoped he was right.

“Dean…” A familiar voice called out his name. He looked around for the source and found Bobby waving at him from some machine parts in the corner of the hangar, with a group of colonists.

Dean jogged towards him, with Sam and Don.

“Am I glad to see you Bobby,” he said, spontaneously hugging the old man. Among the surviving colonists with him were Lisa and Ruby. Jo and Ellen were not with them.   

“Never mind that,” said Bobby, crankily pulling away. “We need a ship.” The old man pointed towards a large transport ship that had come out remarkably unscathed by the attack. “Is Ash with you?”

Dean shook his head mutely. They had no way to bypass the security. But Don was an Earther. Maybe… “Don, do you know any of the codes.”

“I’m just a bartender,” said the man. “You need an officer.”

Unfortunately, everyone who was a soldier was either in the air right now, dead, or missing. All Dean could do was watch the fight in the air, gritting his teeth. It seemed that Lucifer had finished off all the enemy mobile suits, so either they were saved or Lucifer would start attacking them next. The surviving Earther mobile suits were beginning to gather around the base, ready to come in.

Lucifer hovered in the sky, ominously still and silent.

Dean caught a movement at the corner of his eye as the door to the hangar opened. A bloodied Meg was standing there with murder in her eyes. She carried a large bazooka in her arms and with a wild grin, she pointed it straight at Lucifer and fired.

Dean’s mind whirled at the madness of that action. A bazooka wouldn’t hurt the archangel, only piss it off.

Meg seemed to know this because after she fired it, she dropped the gun and smiled wider, opening her arms towards death as Lucifer flew into a rage, launching towards Meg and striking her down with a blade of red fire.

Dean froze, hoping that Lucifer would not see them. And then the archangel was back in the air, destroying every mobile suit within sight. That’s when Dean spotted Cas’ seraph flying towards Lucifer with a silver blade in hand. The seraph pilot managed to manoeuvre around one of the swinging blades and was flying straight for Lucifer’s head and the cockpit. But Lucifer was faster. The archangel shifted its shoulder into the seraph. The seraph collided hard with the shoulder. It barely had time to engage thrusters as it flew towards the ground, crashing onto the floor of the hangar.

Dean jumped out of their hiding spot to run towards the pilot’s aid, but Bobby held him back.

“What are you doing, you damn fool? You can’t save him.”

“Bobby, if he lives, he’s our ticket out of here. And if we don’t get out of here, we’re going to be food for the archangel. Either that or we’ll freeze to death.”

Dean had gradually begun to feel the chill, but it was only now that he realized that the atmospheric net was down, no doubt sabotaged by Meg in her crazy suicide attack.

After a moment, Bobby nodded. “I’ll come with you.”

“Me too,” said Sam, stepping out.

Wordlessly, they ran out of their cover towards the fallen seraph, hoping that Lucifer would be too occupied with the other mobile suits to notice them. Bobby veered towards the right. The quick thinking man had grabbed one of the moving platforms and was driving it towards the seraph.

The body of Cas’ mobile suit was mostly intact, though one if its arms and legs were crumbled, and the suit was heavily dented. From their position on the ground, Dean and Sam couldn’t reach the cockpit until they hopped on the platform. Dean grabbed the railing with white knuckles as Bobby moved the platform up as fast as it would go.

The cockpit and the windshield were still largely intact, but the pilot inside wasn’t moving. He accessed the emergency override panel on the outside of the cockpit, and fortunately the door opened. He didn’t hesitate as he jumped inside the cockpit, yelling, “Cas!”

The pilot didn’t stir until Dean began to shake him. Cas moaned weakly.

“You have to get up, man,” he yelled. “Or we’re all going to die.”

Cas opened his eyes and tried to look at Dean, but his eyes kept glazing over.

“Stims,” said Sam from the platform. He opened the first aid kit on the platform and began to load a syringe. He tossed it to Dean who managed to catch it without poking himself.

Quickly, Dean injected the Cas in the shoulder. After a few moments, Cas began to move and his eyes were focusing again. He looked at Dean wide-eyed.

“Come on, Cas. We have to go.”

Cas nodded mutely.

Dean grabbed him under the shoulders and lifted him from his seat. The guy weighed a ton. He dragged the pilot towards the door.

Bobby’s voice yelled from below. “You boys had better hurry up. Lucifer’s running out of people to kill.”

Dean passed him to Sam who grabbed his arms while Dean pushed from his bottom. Cas was dumped unceremoniously onto the platform.

Dean leaped on to the platform as Bobby began to lower it.

As they descended, Dean could see the colonists heading towards the transport ship, led by Lisa.

“Hold on tight,” said Bobby.

Dean and Sam grabbed onto the railing with one hand while holding Cas with the other. Bobby began driving at full speed towards the ship as the platform was still going down. It was a bumpy ride, and they nearly flew off when the platform came to a screeching halt.

Sam and Dean grabbed Cas under the armpits, as they stepped off, following Bobby onto the ship.

They dumped Cas onto the pilot’s seat and he began to punch in a code. “Sit down everyone,” he said.

Dean grabbed the co-pilot’s seat as the others took the passenger seats and buckled in. There were only about twenty survivors. He tried not to think about how many colonists could still be alive on the base.

The next few moments were tense as the ship began to rise. Cas kept the ship dangerously close to ground as they flew across the snow towards the hills. If Lucifer took notice of them, they were dead.

Dean held his breath watching Cas manoeuvre stealthily just above the hills, keeping with the rise and the fall of the landscape, and then rolling suddenly to miss a hidden cliff of ice that would have killed them all. When the ship reached a large valley, Dean finally let out the breath he was holding. Cas slowed the ship and set it down at the foot of the large metal statue to the Great Unifier.

Relief spread through the ship quickly as Cas cut the engines and set his head back on the headrest, closing his eyes.

No one moved. There was a collective sense of shock among the survivors. The sounds of the base’s destruction could be heard from a distance. Dean thought of the archangel Michael standing in the middle of the hangar – the only thing that would remain standing after Lucifer was done with the base. Lucifer had not touched the suit and neither had Dean. The thought made him sick… He could have saved so many lives if he had agreed to pilot Michael. Jo, Ellen, and Ash wouldn’t have had to die if he hadn’t been so selfish. He couldn’t help thinking that all those deaths were on him.

Dean stood up angrily. He couldn’t sit here anymore. Without a word, he opened the exit and walked out into the cold, wanting to feel its angry bite. He heard Cas call out to him, but he ignored it as stepped out on to the snowy field. The mint green mechanic’s uniform he was wearing was no match for the winter wind that blew through it as if he were wearing nothing. He pushed on, making his way towards the leg of the hideous grey statue. He wanted to punch the ugly thing and curse the son of a bitch who had made those awful monstrosities – the archangels.

“Dean!”

Dean turned around at the sound of his name. Cas was walking towards him, slowly with steps that looked painful.

“Go back inside,” ordered Dean.

Cas paid him no heed as he continued to walk towards him. “You’re going to freeze, Dean.”

“I don’t care,” he yelled back. He realized he sounded like a petulant child at that moment, but he had a hard time caring. “They all died because of me Cas – because I was too scared to pilot Michael. I could have protected them. How many people…. god… how many people?... They’re still dying out there. How many people do you think are still inside the base, that… if they aren’t killed by Lucifer, are going to freeze to death?”

Cas caught up to him. He grabbed Dean’s shoulders, looked at him with sympathy and sadness in his eyes and said, “Dean. This isn’t your fault.”

Dean didn’t want Cas’ sympathy. He pulled away and faced the statue, ready to slam his fist into the thing.

“Please Dean,” said Cas, grabbing him and turning him around. His face was inches away from Dean’s so that he could see the deep blue of the Earther’s eyes and the lines on his full chapped lips. And then those lips were on his.

Dean froze in shock, and then angrily, he spun the pilot and slammed him into leg of the statue, keeping him there with his body. There was an equal measure of fear and hunger in Cas’ eyes, mirroring Dean’s emotions. He gave into the hunger, covering the Earther’s lips with his mouth and kissing them hungrily, keeping Cas pushed up against the leg the statue. Cas entwined his fingers in Dean’s hair, sending pin pricks through his flesh.

“Holy fuck!” Sam yelled behind them.

The voice was like a bucket of cold water falling on his head. He ripped himself away from Cas, and said, “It’s not…”

But when he looked at Sam, his brother wasn’t looking at him. He was looking at…

“Holy fuck!” said Dean.

The statue they had been leaning against was no longer an ugly grey statue. It was a giant mobile suit the size of…

“An archangel!” exclaimed Castiel, with awe in his voice. “Gabriel.”


	11. Gabriel

Castiel placed his hand gingerly against the leg of the mobile suit as if trying to assess if it was real. “How could this have been here… hiding in plain sight the whole time? This statue was here long before Gabriel ever disappeared… I don’t understand.”

“That wasn’t here a second ago,” said Dean, stating the obvious.

“It’s some kind of cloaking technology,” said Cas. “Something that existed in the old days. The cloaking generator must have been damaged in the attack. Maybe it was dislodged when we…” He stopped anxiously, rubbing the back of his neck.

“If the archangel is here,” said Sam. “Then his pilot has to be on the base. Or he was…”

Without a pilot, the archangel was just a hunk of metal. Dean turned from it and headed back to the ship, avoiding Castiel. He could hear his footsteps crunching behind him. What had happened between them was complicated and Dean didn’t want to think about it or even acknowledge it.

As they boarded the ship, Castiel went towards the back of the ship and stood in front of Don the bartender. “You,” he said, accusingly.

“What’s up Cassie?” asked Don, in carefree manner.

“It’s you,” he accused. “You’re Gabriel.”

Don laughed. “What are you talking about?”

For a moment, Dean thought the stims and the crash might be affecting Cas mentally. But then Dean remembered… “You said that Michael was kind of dick, like you knew him.”

“Yes,” agreed Cas. “I was there when you told Dean that all the archangels were ‘dicks’ except for Gabriel. I always thought it was strange that an Earth citizen was working on the base as a bartender. The army generally doesn’t hire Earth civilians and you were the only one, but I didn’t question it, because you’d been there even before I’d been assigned to the base. Did anyone even hire you? Or did you just show up one day, and no one questioned it? How long have you been hiding here? How—”

“Okay, okay,” said Don, holding his hands up. His grin faded suddenly. “You got me. Question is, what are you going to do about it?”

Castiel glared at the man.

Dean stepped in and said, “We’re going to ask you to do the right thing. If you can pilot that thing out there – you can stop Lucifer before he attacks anyone else.”

Gabriel’s pilot snorted at him. “That’s rich coming from you. You could have stopped this if you’d chosen to pilot Michael, but you didn’t.”

Sam tried to come to Dean’s rescue. “Look Gabriel. We can’t get to the Michael archangel now – not without putting this ship and everyone on it in danger. But your archangel is right here. I know we’re asking a lot…”

Gabriel folded his arms defiantly.

Castiel confronted the archangel pilot, angrily. “Does duty mean nothing to you? The archangels saved the Earth from the asteroid, hundreds of years ago. Now that the Earth is once again in danger, you turn away from duty and hide behind the counter of a bar. How many times did you sit back and do nothing as our soldiers and civilians were being murdered by rebels?”

“Duty?” yelled Gabriel, standing. “If you only knew Castiel. Yes we fucking saved this ungrateful planet from the asteroid, but we couldn’t save it from scumbag dictators like Doctor Shurley, your so-called Unifier. We were used as weapons – to keep people scared – to keep people from living. Look around Castiel. What the fuck did we save anyway? You Earthers live like monks, blindly devoted to some ideals that we made up to keep you under control, and you treat the colonists like your fucking slaves, harbouring some grudge from a time before you were even born. And then you tried to use me as a fucking weapon – again! Go out and kill the Knights of Hell, Gabriel. Gabriel, go suppress the colonies. Gabriel, there are some people expressing free thought. You’d better put a stop to that. Don’t you see? I ran away for your sakes – for Earthers and for colonists. The archangels don’t belong here. They should never have been born!”

Castiel backed away from Gabriel’s tirade. No one was willing to say anything after that shaming of a century. Dean looked at the colonists around him. Without resources, they couldn’t stay here long. Gabriel was their best chance to escape to the colonies without being taken down by Lucifer. Even if Gabriel couldn’t win, the distraction would be their chance to escape. Dean had sworn to Sam home, so even if it made him hate himself, he had to ask it of Gabriel. “Gabriel…” he began.

“Zip it Winchester,” snapped Gabriel. “And fuck you all for making me do this,” he said walking towards the door.

Dean put his head in his hands as the door to the shuttle closed behind the archangel pilot. He couldn’t look at Sam, Bobby or Castiel as he headed for the pilot’s seat to do his pre-flight checks.

He could hear the sound of a lift outside as the pilot boarded the archangel. Sam took a seat in the co-pilot seat as Castiel strapped himself into one of the passenger seats, his head lolling down on his chest as the stims began to wear off. Soon the engine of the archangel Gabriel roared to life.

Through the viewfinder, Dean could see the archangel shaking of its ice as it rose from its resting place. Almost instantly, Lucifer took notice and turned his attention to Gabriel. Before Lucifer could get to them, Gabriel leaped away from the valley towards the base.

On the comms channel, he could hear Gabriel hailing Lucifer.

_Luci. It’s me Gabriel. You don’t have to do this anymore. You don’t have to be a soldier. How about we leave these suits and grab ourselves some pints?_

Lucifer wasn’t moving. He seemed to be listening.

Gabriel continued to speak to him. _They don’t need us anymore Lucifer. The asteroid is long gone. Father has been dead for centuries. We don’t have to kill anymore. Please, Luci._

 _Get out of my way Gabriel. I don’t want to kill you,_ yelled Lucifer.

 _I can’t do that Lucifer. I won’t let you hurt them,_ replied Gabriel.

 _Who? The humans? You would die for a bunch of cockroaches?_ Lucifer’s voice dripped with incredulity.

_They’re far more than that. You should try living among them. Maybe you’d see—_

Lucifer cut him off. _Last chance Gabriel._

Lucifer’s blades lit up, and in the same moment, Gabriel drew a short metal blade and then he seemed to disappear… or were there two of them? He couldn’t figure out what he was seeing anymore. The readings on the scanner were all garbled.

With a great roar, Lucifer turned around to face the mirrored image of Gabriel and plunged his flaming blades into its chest.

Dean heard the pilot’s yell as the archangel Gabriel crumpled. He didn’t have time to watch the rest as he gunned the shuttle away from the base and into the Earth’s atmosphere without looking back.


	12. Leaving

The flight back to Lawrence colony felt like a crawl to Dean. No one talked about Gabriel’s sacrifice. It was easier to pretend that it hadn’t happened instead of admitting that they practically bullied the man into it. For an archangel, Gabriel was an okay guy, but Dean doubted that the same could be said for Michael.

For the most part, they were all too exhausted to sleep, and most of the colonists fell asleep. Dean almost nodded off a few times himself, but his co-pilot Sammy endeavoured to keep him awake.

“So…” began Sam tentatively. Dean knew he wasn’t going to like what came out of his mouth next. “Do you want to talk about it – you and Cas?”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” said Dean.

“Right… so is he going to stay on Lawrence? We can take all the other colonists home to their colonies, but…”

“What about Ruby?” asked Dean, turning the tables on him.

“What about her?” asked Sam, narrowing his eyes.

“Well, you’ve been awfully close lately. Are you guys official? Cause, I gotta say. I miss Jess.”

Sam glared at his brother. “Jerk.”

“Bitch.”

After a moment, Sam said, “But seriously Dean… Castiel practically worships you. Whatever you’re thinking, you need to be straight with him. He betrayed the Earth for you.”

Dean looked at Sam like he’d grown a second head. “What the fuck are you talking about? He got us out of there because we were all going to die otherwise – including him?”

“So, why aren’t we heading for another military base? He’s not stopping us going back to the colonies.”

“Have you seen him?” asked Dean, pointing at the pale, sleeping Earther. “He couldn’t stop us if he wanted to.”

“I think Sam’s right.” It was Lisa’s voice, from the front of the passenger area. “I’ve seen the way he looks at you. And hey, you ditched me for him, remember?”

“That was not what happened. I needed information from him.”

“So, that’s why you slept in his room,” said Sam.

Lisa laughed.

Dean glared at them and turned back to his console. “I am not having this conversation.”

This time Bobby spoke. “Well, whatever you do, boy. Try not to piss him off before we can get everyone back home.”

“If you guys don’t shut up about me and Cas, I’m going to turn this ship around,” said Dean, jokingly.

“What?” said Cas, opening his eyes suddenly. He looked around. “I heard my name.”

“I said ‘Ass’,” lied Dean.

Sam and Lisa snorted. He glared at them both and told Cas, “Go back to sleep.”

Cas cocked his head to the side, confused. “How close are we to the colony?

“Another hour,” said Dean.

Cas nodded. “Wake me up then.” And then he went back to sleep.

They were hailed as they approached Lawrence Colony.

_United Empire Officer Samandriel to unidentified ship: You are not cleared to land on Lawrence Colony. Please stop immediately and surrender your ship for inspection._

Dean pressed the comms button and replied, “Hey Alfie, guess who it is.”

Samandriel sounded surprised when he said, _Dean Winchester? You were taken to a military base on Earth._

“Yeah, well I’m home.”

_I’m going to have to take you in for questioning on suspicion of desertion._

“Whoa there Alfie—”

Castiel broke in. “This is Major Castiel of the United Earth Armed Forces assigned to Earth Base 023. I’m transmitting my credentials now.” He leaned over Dean’s shoulder and began typing a sequence of numbers. “I am returning some of the colony workers.”

_Major Castiel? I didn’t receive any notice of this._

“You should have been given notice of my arrival,” said Cas with a decidedly annoyed affectation.

_Well… your codes check out sir. You can proceed._

“Thank you, Samandriel,” said Cas.

Dean released the coms button and then Cas said, “Our security is very lax here.”

Dean chuckled. “Just the way I like it,” he said as he proceeded through the atmospheric net and landed the ship in Bobby’s salvage yard.

“So what now?” asked Sam, after they landed and cut the engine.

“Well Sammy. We’re going to have to start getting people back to their colonies. I’ve got the Impala, and we can use this ship too. The question is, how long before the Earth Army comes after us?” He asked, looking at Cas.

“It’s hard to say,” replied Cas. “I imagine it will take a while to sort out the mess. They will eventually discover that there is a missing transport ship. I don’t imagine they will have an easy time identifying the missing colonists. My concern is, they will likely try to search for you Dean. More than ever, they will be needing a pilot for Michael, and they know you reside on Lawrence Colony.”

Dean waved off his concern. “So, who’s hungry?” He asked the passengers.

The colonists ate up Bobby’s food stores, and while everyone was eating, Dean made a silent getaway to the hangar. He almost cried when he saw the Impala.

“I missed you baby,” he said, stroking the nose of the long ship. She was a reminder to him of home and his dad. It hurt more than ever to think of him now – to think of family. He kept losing everyone. He thought of the Harvelle roadhouse. How much time had he spent there, drinking that disgusting house beer while Jo quipped, Ellen scolded, and Ash tapped away on that damn keyboard of his. That was lost to him now… gone with his parents, and with most of the colony militia and his purpose in life. Dean opened the door to the Impalaand sat heavily in the pilot’s seat, thinking.

Sammy was back, so at least he’d managed something. But as long as Lucifer existed, Sam would never be truly safe. There would always be a chance the Earth army would come looking for a pilot. Meanwhile, Lucifer was out there killing people on Earth. How long would it be before the archangel headed for the colonists? It wouldn’t take much for an archangel to destroy the colonies. Dean knew what he had to do… he had to head back to Earth and agree to pilot Michael, the sooner the better. He would have to do it in secret.

“Dean?” Cas had followed him into the hangar.

“Over here, Cas,” he said, mustering a smile.

Cas walked slowly over to the Impala _._ “This your ship?”

“This is my baby,” clarified Dean. “Come on in,” he said, indicating the co-pilot seat.

Cas winced as he stepped up into the ship entrance and took a seat.

“How are you doing?” he asked.

“I’m okay,” replied Cas. “A bit sore, but the seraph took most of the damage. How are you, Dean?”

“I’m fine,” said Dean.

Cas looked at him and said bluntly, “I don’t think you are.”

Dean looked away and pretended to study the console. He did not want to talk about his feelings.

Cas didn’t take the hint, but ploughed on. “I think you made the right decision, Dean. I am convinced now that the archangel project should never have been restarted. You saw the damage an archangel could do. I doubt reviving yet another archangel would have positive consequences. We don’t really know what Michael is capable of.”

Dean looked at the pilot curiously. Did he know that Dean was planning to pilot Michael? Did he suspect?

He continued, “The current pilot of Lucifer only has a 75% compatibility with the archangel. He will burn out eventually, though we don’t have the data to say when.”

“So…” Dean attempted to change the subject. “Are you planning to head back to Earth?”

“I can’t. I’m a fugitive, like you Dean.”

“They don’t have to know that you helped us escape.”

“Samandriel already knows.” Cas shook his head. “I don’t know what I’m going to do now.”

It was one more thing Dean had to feel guilty about. He had dragged Cas into this and ruined his life. What was Cas going to do in the colonies? He was going to have a hard time trying to fit in, and who was going to give him a job?

“You can stay with me and Bobby. We’ll show you the ropes. You can be a mechanic, like me.”

Bobby would take care of him, even though Dean would be gone. Piloting an archangel would be a one way trip, particularly since Dean intended to use the self-destruct and take out the monstrous machine for good.

“I would like that,” said Cas with a small smile on his face.

It made Dean hurt to look at him, so he looked away and announced. “I’m wiped. I’m going to turn in for the night. Bobby will set you up for somewhere to sleep.” Abruptly, he stepped off the Impala and headed back towards the house, not slowing or turning around when Cas said goodnight.

There was one more thing he had to do in this life, before he headed off to Earth. The next morning Dean found his brother and asked him to co-pilot the Impalawith him when they brought the colonists back to their homes. It would be one last road trip, and his final chance to be with Sammy.

Once the decision was made, they didn’t dawdle. Dean and Sam took the passengers from the farthest colonies in the Impala. They had to refit it a bit and put some temporary seating in the cargo hold, but between him, Bobby, and Lisa, it didn’t take long. The rest of the colonists went with Cas and Bobby in the passenger transport ship.

To Dean’s chagrin, Ruby also came with them, and she often tried to monopolize Sam’s time. At one point during the trip, he went to use the toilet and when he came back, he caught the tail end of their conversation.

“You can’t tell him,” said Ruby.

“He’s my brother,” said Sam.

Dean almost asked ‘can’t tell me what?’ but he opted to stay quiet and hope they revealed it.

Ruby continued, “But he wouldn’t understand. He was never connected to Lucifer like you were. The Earthers have to pay.”

At that moment, Sam noticed Dean. He looked like a kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar.

“What can’t you tell me?” asked Dean.

Sam looked at Ruby.

Ruby told him, acidly, “It’s none of your business. Your brother and I were having a private conversation.”

Dean looked at his brother. “Sammy, I’m talking to you. What the hell is this about?”

“Keep your voice down Dean,” said Sam. He turned to examine something on the console as he said, “We can talk about it in private when we get back to Lawrence.”

“Is Lucifer still affecting you?” asked Dean, bluntly hoping to force his brother to stop being evasive.

“How am I supposed to respond to that?” asked Sam. “If I say no, you’ll think Lucifer is telling me to lie. Well, believe it or not the answer is ‘no’, but it doesn’t mean that I’m okay with your prying into my business. In fact, now that we made it back home, we should probably return to the status quo of seeing each other once every few months so I can live my life without big brother hovering over my shoulder.”

It hurt like a slap in the face. Dean was struck speechless. He realized he wasn’t going to get that last brotherly bonding moment he’d been looking for on this trip. He didn’t understand what was happening to his brother – was it Lucifer, Ruby, or was it the distance that had grown between them over the years since he’d left the colony militia. Maybe it was all of those reasons, but regardless, he felt like Sam didn’t love him anymore. But then… it didn’t matter, because he was going to die soon. It only mattered that Sammy would be safe afterward.

As if to avoid any further conversation, Sam turned on the newsfeed and looked up news on Lucifer. A voice broadcasted over the speakers. “It has been two days since the end of the Lucifer archangel rampage that claimed the lives of over 100,000 people in three separate cities. There is no word on where Lucifer has gone or whether it will return. The head of the United Earth Council, Raphael – an archangel pilot himself – gave the following statement: ‘It is too soon to tell whether or not the Lucifer archangel will return. The current pilot for this archangel has a low compatibility with the mobile suit, and we are hopeful that he has experienced a burn out and will no longer be able to pilot the archangel. However, we are continuing to search for a pilot for Michael in order to defend the United Earth Empire against further Lucifer threat.’ When asked whether Raphael would be taking up his archangel mobile suit in the fight against Lucifer, he gave no comment…”

Dean reached over and turned the newsfeed off.

They barely spoke after that incident. Dean opted to turn up the music when he was piloting, to the chagrin of everyone on board. When they reached the last colony, all the passengers left with the exception of Ruby. Dean gritted his teeth as Sam told him that Ruby would be returning with them to Lawrence. He said nothing. What could he say? He didn’t trust her, but Sam wasn’t going to listen to him. He’d have to tell Bobby to keep an eye on Ruby after he was gone.

The rest of the flight back to Lawrence was spent in a tense silence. Sam was walking on eggshells around Dean, who was fuming quietly, trying not to start another fight. Dean didn’t want his last moments with Sam to be an argument. When they reached the colony, Dean dropped Sam and Ruby off near Sam’s apartment.

After Ruby got off the ship, Dean stopped Sam before he could leave.

“Sammy, can I talk to you for a second?”

“Look Dean,” he said, turning to face his brother. “I know you don’t like Ruby…”

“It’s not about that,” said Dean. “I know you have the right to make your own choices. I’m sorry you think I’m a pain in the ass when I try to watch out for you but…” He found himself at a loss of what to say. He wanted to tell his brother that he loved him, but that would violate Dean’s ‘no chick flick moments’ rule and make Sam suspicious. “I’m not mad at you – for leaving the colony militia and starting your own life. I never was. I’m proud of you Sammy. I’m glad you got out. So… go and live a normal, easy life away from the war and just… be safe Sammy.”

Sam looked at Dean like he’d grown a second head, and Dean turned away.

After an awkward moment of silence, Sam said, “Okay Dean. I’ll see you later then.”

Dean could hear his footsteps taking him off the ship. He swallowed hard as his stomach was hit with a sharp pain. This was the last time he was going to see his brother. He didn’t look back. He started the Impala and gunned it to Bobby’s.

When he brought the Impalainto the hangar, Bobby was there working on the Colt while Castiel watched. The Earther came to the dock to greet him as he got off the ship. He was wearing Dean’s clothes – a black t-shirt and a loose fitting pair of jeans that barely clung to his hips. For a moment, he imagined how easy it would be to rip them off and…

“Welcome home, Dean,” said Cas in a deep rumble, staring at him with wide blue eyes.

One of these days, he was going to have to teach him how to blink. He corrected himself mentally. Bobby would have to teach him.  

“Hey Cas,” said Dean.

“Is everything okay?” asked Cas.

He had forgotten how perceptive the damn Earther was. Dean said, “Never better,” as he walked casually towards Bobby.

“Hey there Bobby.”

Bobby gave him a nod. “You want to give me a hand here?”

Dean nodded. This would give him a chance to talk to Bobby. But first, he needed to get rid of Cas. “Hey Cas. I’m starving. Do you think you can get me something from the kitchen?”

“I will get you something to eat,” he said, leaving the hangar. Dean watched him leave. Those jeans were barely hanging on.

Bobby coughed to get Dean’s attention. He’d been caught staring.

“So…” said Dean quickly. “Apparently Ruby is staying.”

“You don’t like Ruby much, do you?” asked Bobby.

“I don’t trust her,” said Dean, bluntly. “Does she seem off to you? Like… they spend a lot of time together, and ever since Sam met Ruby, he’s been different… secretive.”

“Maybe it ain’t Ruby that’s the problem. He met Ruby about the same time that Lucifer started to affect him.”

“Lucifer could still be affecting him. Or maybe Ruby is manipulating him somehow…”

“Manipulating him to do what?”

“I don’t know,” said Dean. “She could be a Knight of Hell for all we know. She seems awfully interested in Lucifer.”

Bobby harrumphed and continued to work on the Colt. “Want to hand me that wrench over there?”

Dean gave him the wrench and said casually, “Maybe you should watch them… make sure Ruby isn’t up to no good.”

Bobby said nothing and continued to work.

Dean continued to speak. “So, Cas was helping you out with the Colt?”

“Uh huh.”

“Do you think it would be okay if Cas stuck around for a while? He doesn’t have anywhere to go and… maybe you could show him the ropes around here – make him an apprentice mechanic.”

“Or you could,” said Bobby flatly. He came out from the Colt and then he asked Dean suspiciously, “Are you planning on going anywhere boy?”

“No,” lied Dean. “I just want to make sure it’s okay – if he stays here.”

“As long as he earns his keep,” said Bobby. “I’m fine with it.”

“Thank you, Bobby,” he said gratefully. He wanted to say more, but Bobby was already suspicious. Dean hated goodbyes anyway, so he stood up and said, “I’m going to go check on Cas.”

He rushed off to the kitchen. When he got to the doorway, he nearly ran into Cas who was holding a plate with some protein sticks on it and nothing else. The Earther mutely offered it to him. Dean looked at it and decided he had no appetite. He took the plate away from him and set it down on the counter.

“I’ve got something better,” said Dean, going into the cupboard and pilfering one of Bobby’s finest bottles of whisky. He took out two glasses and poured, and the thrust one of the glasses into Cas’ hands.

Cas frowned at him. “Dean… you can talk to me.”

Dean downed the glass of whisky, relishing the burn as it slid down his throat. He put down the empty glass and stepped closer to him, saying in a low voice, “I don’t want to talk.”

Cas’ eyes widened. Dean grabbed him around his waist and pulled him close, placing his lips on Cas’. The Earther froze for a moment, and then he began to kiss him back, blindly placing his full whisky glass on the counter in the process.

Dean slipped his tongue in, relishing the warmth, breathing in Cas’ clean, soapy scent. He pressed Cas into the counter, taking in all his heat. He was getting hard, and from the feel of it, Cas was too. This was how he wanted to spend his last night as himself.

Dean pulled away and said, gruffly, “I want to fuck you.”

The Earther’s adam’s apple bulged for a moment as he swallowed hard. “Okay,” he said, giving Dean the permission he sought.

Dean took his hand and dragged Cas towards his bedroom. He felt butterflies in his stomach as they went down the hallway towards his room. He’d had enough one night stands in his life and they usually didn’t usually make him nervous. He tried to convince himself that this was just another one. True, it was with a guy, which was rare for Dean, but he’d popped that cherry before. Was it more complicated because Cas was an Earther soldier? This was going to be the one and only time so he didn’t have to worry about that complication. Besides, Cas was an ex-soldier.

He paused in front of his door, hesitant to open it. Cas looked at him with those impossibly blue eyes – expectant, waiting, anxious. Dean reminded himself that Cas was a virgin and maybe he wasn’t ready for this. And then… he deserved to have his first time with someone who would still be there in the morning.

“Dean,” said Cas, tilting his head to the side with a look of concern on his face. He reached out and stroked his fingers through Dean’s hair, giving him the shivers.

Dean licked his lips, as his mouth went dry. He was probably going to go to hell for this, but he wanted Cas and this would be his last chance. Committed, he opened the door.

This time, it was Cas who kissed him, moving him towards the bed until the back of his knees hit the edge, and he fell onto the mattress with Cas writhing on top of him. Dean reached under his shirt and felt his flat, muscled abs. He wanted skin against skin, so the clothing had to go. They were in a frenzy as they began to rip off shirts and pants. When Dean reached for the other man’s underwear he paused, waiting for permission.

“Please,” said Cas in a thick, rough voice.

Dean brought Cas onto his back and kept him there with one hand as is other hand slipped under the elastic band of the underwear. Gently, he stroked the man’s cock with his thumb. Cas gave a responsive moan.

Dean leaned forward and kissed Cas hard, dragging his teeth across his lower lip. In response, Cas jerked his pelvis up against Dean’s.

“Easy there,” said Dean, giving him a playful grin.

“Dean.” There was a warning in Cas’ voice as he said his name. The man was clearly eager. How could a man with looks like his could have reached 30 without ever having had sex? Earther society had to be fucked up.

“I got you Cas,” said Dean. He slid his fingers under the underwear band and pulled them down until the man’s dick popped out. He took a moment to appreciate the sight before giving a quick stroke with his hand, causing Cas to gasp in response and chew on his lower lip. He looked at Dean, waiting, eyes trusting.

Dean stroked him some more, slowly at first, spreading the pre-cum, and then faster as Cas insisted by raising his hips. The moans emanating from him were amazing.

“You like that?” asked Dean with a playful grin on his face.

Cas raised himself on his elbows. “I want to see yours too.”  

“I’m all yours, Cas.”

Cas rose to his knees and tentatively reached out, stroking Dean’s junk through his underwear. His cock pulsed under Cas’ touch. Eagerly, Dean pulled down his underwear to give Cas access. The man stopped to admire it briefly before he gently stroked the length of it, giving Dean a warm, tingling sensation, and making him want more.

Dean reached for Cas and drew him close, so that their pelvises were locked together. He cut off the man’s gasp by kissing him hard, and then Dean reached for their cocks and began to stroke them together, eliciting moans and gasps from Cas that he smothered with more kisses. As the friction continued, Dean through his head back and moaned at the intensity of the pleasure. Cas looked at him with the pupils of his gorgeous eyes dilated. Then Cas’ head lolled against Dean’s shoulder as he began to lose control of his muscles. It didn’t take long. Cas cried out Dean’s name as he ejaculated hot cum onto Dean and into his palm, driving Dean closer to coming.

After Cas was spent, he fell onto Dean, pushing him backwards onto the bed while Dean continued to stroke himself.

Soft lips covered his moans, and Cas’ fingers slid down the length of Dean’s body until they reach his cock. The Earther pushed away Dean’s hand and replaced it with his own. Dean surrendered, leaving his hands by his side as he arched into Cas’ touch.

After a few quick strokes, Cas pulled his hand away. Dean opened his eyes, watching as Cas slid down his torso and brought his lips down to Dean’s cock, sucking the tip gently. Dean couldn’t help the guttural noise that emanated from his mouth. Cas then gave him a few teasing lips, stopping to give him a cocky grin.

“Okay, already,” said Dean impatiently.

“I got you Dean,” said Cas, throwing his words back at him.

“Very fun—”

Dean never finished his sentence as the moist heat of Cas mouth over his cock drove everything else from his mind.

“Fuck. Cas,” muttered Dean incoherently as heat flooded his gut and his cock tingled all over with pleasure. He arched up into Cas mouth, thrusting himself between hot, slippery lips, jamming into the back of his throat, trying to go deeper.

Cas gripped the base of Dean’s cock with his hand, stroking as he continued to bob up and down. Dean’s pleasure intensified. The heat grew to a desperate intensity, pleasure bordering on pain.

“Cas… I’m gonna…”

Dean’s cock pulsated, spewing out hot fluid into Cas’ mouth. Relief washed over him. With a final moan, his muscles gave out as he sank into mattress.

Cas made a face as he swallowed. And then he said, “That was more… bitter than I had expected.”

Dean laughed loudly and grabbed Cas’ arm, pulling to bring him down beside him. Cas curled around him, placing his hand over his sticky abs. They were going to have to clean themselves up soon, but now, Dean wanted to bask in the afterglow of their sex and not think about anything else.

After a few moments of comfortable silence, Cas said, “I’m sorry that I came too soon.”

“It was your first time,” said Dean. “And, hey, it was me after all.” He gave his cockiest grin.

“Yes. It was,” agreed Cas.

“I was joking, dumbass.”

“I wasn’t,” he replied, placing a chaste kiss on Dean’s cheek.

Dean fidgeted uncomfortably. This was starting to get a bit chick flick for him. He sat up and said, “We’d better get cleaned up.”

“Dean…” said Cas, anxiety bright in his eyes.

He held his breath, dreading where this conversation was about to go.

“…Was I okay?” asked the pilot.

Dean almost laughed in relief. Instead, he smiled and said with a wink. “You’ll be as good as me in no time.”

Cas smiled back. “Especially if we do this every night.”

Dean froze. He kept the smile plastered onto his face as he turned away and headed to the bathroom connected to the room. “Yeah,” he agreed weakly, trying to keep Cas from noticing his discomfort.

This was only ever going to be a one night stand, but Cas didn’t know that. Guilt wracked his insides. He went to the sink and splashed cold water on his face. Dean jumped when Cas touched his shoulder.

“I’m sorry…” said the pilot. “I shouldn’t have assumed…”

It was unnerving that Cas could see right through him.

When Dean turned around, he could see concern in the man’s eyes. It wasn’t a fear of being dumped or an anger at being used: he was worried about Dean, and that made him feel worse. He had to say something… he couldn’t tell Cas the truth. He couldn’t let him suspect, but he needed Cas to understand… he didn’t want Cas to hate him when he woke up tomorrow to find him gone.

“Cas…” The man was giving him such an intense stare, as if he were looking straight into Dean’s soul and he would know a lie. “I want every night to be like this,” he said. That was the truth, even if he did use it to cover up a lie. He hugged Cas tightly, partly to hide his guilt from the penetrating gaze, but also because he desperately needed the comfort right now. The temptation to bury his head in Cas’ shoulder and cry was strong. He bit his lip and steeled himself, placing the carefree grin back on his face and pulling away.

“Enough heavy stuff,” he announced. “Shower, then bed.”

Cas nodded his agreement. “Where will I be sleeping?”

“Well… there’s Sam’s old room. But I’d have to get the sheets and make the bed. Or, you know, you could just sleep here, if you want.”

Cas hugged him from behind. “I would like that.”

Dean knew it was a bad idea. He didn’t know why he had suggested it. It would be far more difficult to sneak off in the middle of the night without getting caught. On the other hand, this would be his last chance to be with Cas.

As they lay in bed, Cas curled up on his side, and Dean spooned him, stroking his messy black hair softly until the other man fell asleep. Dean lay awake for a long time, watching him sleep and thinking about the life they could have had. And then he thought about what he had to do.

When he decided it was time, he carefully extricated himself from Cas, listening to any changes in breathing to make sure he didn’t wake the pilot up. And then he grabbed some clothes and headed towards the hangar.

There was no point in taking the Colt. His plan was to go to Earth and surrender himself, so he only needed a way to get there. He looked at his Impala proudly. Taking a last look around the hangar, he got inside the ship and headed out of the colony. 


	13. Betrayal

On the way out of the colony, Dean’s ship was hailed by Samandriel’s familiar voice.

_United Empire Officer Samandriel to unidentified ship: Please state your destination and the nature of your business._

“Hey Alfie. Why the hell are you hanging out here in the middle of the night? Do you sleep in that thing?” he asked, indicating the mobile suit.

“Why are you leaving the colony in the middle of the night, Dean?”

“Just a cargo run,” said Dean, giving him the usual excuse.

“Does Major Castiel know that you’re leaving the colony?”

“You should ask him,” said Dean. “But if you’re going to stop me, Alfie, you’d better shoot me down now. Lebanon will sure be disappointed when they don’t get the parts they need to fix their climate control systems. Could get pretty cold over there.”

“Fine,” relented Samandriel. “But I will be speaking to Castiel.”

“Great,” said Dean. Without further ado, he gunned the Impalaaway from the colony, setting a course towards Earth.

He didn’t get far before a ship registered on his radar. It was coming towards him at a fast speed from the direction of the colony. Dean pushed the Impalainto overdrive, but when he saw that it was the Colt, he knew he would not be able to outrun it and he certainly couldn’t fight it.

It was Cas’ that hailed him over the comm. His voice was cold and formal as he said, _Surrender your ship—_

Dean shut off his comm. He didn’t need to hear the rest and he didn’t have any excuses to give. He just kept gunning towards the Earth. 

It took Cas less than a second to realize that Dean was running and give chase. At first, it seemed like Dean was going to get away, but that was only because Cas was still figuring out the system. At full thrusters, the Colt began to catch up. The mobile suit pulled ahead of the Impala and then blocked the path towards Earth.

Dean’s hand hovered over the firing controls, but he didn’t press them. He’d already lost. The Impala was just small cargo ship, dwarfed by the armoured mobile suit. Its hand was large enough to grab the Impala, which it did, swinging Dean around in his seat. His head hit the console. He heard a crunch as his nose broke and his eyes watered with pain. Then his head snapped back jarring his neck painfully. He went limp as ragdoll, as he was thrown around – his seat belt the only thing keeping from being crushed against the hull of the ship. He thought he was going to pass out, it finally stopped. The Impala touched solid ground.

Dean leaned back in his seat, unable to get out himself. When the door to ship opened, an angry Castiel walked in, followed by a disappointed and concerned Bobby. It was Bobby who came to his rescue, unbuckling him, and grabbing him under his shoulders to try to lift him out of his seat.

Cas was giving a Dean a death glare which was only interrupted by Bobby saying, “A little help here.”

Cas obliged, and they pulled Dean out of the Impala, and dragged him to his bedroom.

“You couldn’t have gone a little easier on him?” asked Bobby.

“He deserved this,” said Cas, coldly.

Dean could not disagree with him, but he couldn’t apologize either, so he said nothing, allowing himself to be placed on the bed. He had not changed his mind. As soon as he was better, he was going to try again.

“I’ll get the first aid kit,” said Bobby leaving the room.

Cas continued to glare at him, wordless.

“It doesn’t matter what you do or say Cas, I’m still going to go. And there’s only one way you can stop me for sure,” said Dean angrily, testing the Earther.

“You would endanger every Earther and colonist by agreeing to pilot Michael.”

“I’ll do whatever I have to do to protect Sammy.”

Castiel’s smouldering anger turned to disappointment. “You’re not the man I thought you were.”

The words were like a dagger in Dean’s chest. Before he could even think about how to respond to that, Bobby walked in with the first aid kit. Castiel turned on his heels and walked out of the room.

Dean waited for Bobby to give him a scolding, but he said nothing. Maybe he’d sensed that Dean was too broken to care. He stared at the ceiling despondently as Bobby patched him up and then left without a word.

Dean slept in fits, waking constantly from nightmares. The nauseating pain in his head kept him from getting out of bed, even though he wanted to be as far away from here as possible. He couldn’t bear to look Bobby or Cas in the eye, even though he knew he’s done the right thing – the only thing.

Bobby came into the room occasionally to check on him and drop off some food, but otherwise he was left alone.

He had no sense of how much time had passed when Cas burst into the room, followed closely by Bobby.

“He’s still here,” said Cas. He looked at Bobby who looked back at him, briefly confused.

“What’s going on?” asked Dean.

“The Coltis gone,” said Cas.

Dean knew right away. “Sammy!”

“That damn idjit,” said Bobby.

Without a word, Cas left the room.

“Wait up,” said Dean, dragging himself out of bed, headache be damned.

“Sit your ass down boy. You ain’t going to do any good for Sammy when you can barely walk.”

“I don’t care,” said Dean, swallowing a handful of painkillers from off the nightstand. He reached into his drawer and pulled his secret stash of stims, injecting himself before he stretched out his aching shoulder, cracked his neck, and followed Cas out to the hangar.

They were at the door to the hangar when Dean finally caught up to Cas. The Earther turned around and said, “Go back to your room.”

“Screw that,” he said, pushing past Castiel and grabbing the handle to the door. “He’s my brother.”

He opened it and walked through. Castiel followed behind him saying, “I won’t let you go to Earth.”

“We don’t have time for this shit, Cas. I can talk him down. You need me.”

“I’ll stop him the same way I stopped you,” said Cas.

“Like hell you—“

The sounds of shots rang out and before Dean could react, Cas shoved him to the ground hard, reaching for the pistol he no longer carried at his side.

The shooter revealed herself, coming out from behind the Impala. “Looking for your weapon officer?” she said, pointing her gun at his head.

“Ruby,” yelled Dean. “What the fuck did you do to Sammy?”

“Me? Nothing. It was all him. Oh, and Lucifer too. But don’t be too hard on baby bro. He did this partly to prove himself to you.” She winked at him, before he took aim at Cas.

Before she could fire, there was a crack of weapon fire and Ruby stumbled. Blood bloomed from the centre of her chest and, with a vacant look in her eye, she fell forward limply.

Behind her, Bobby stood holding a smoking shotgun. He had used one of the alternative entrances to the hangar, carrying a shotgun with him.

“How did you know to bring a shotgun with you?” asked Castiel.

“I keep it in the hangar for emergencies,” he said with a shrug.

“I have to stop him,” growled Castiel. “I won’t let him pilot Lucifer.”

“You’re not going without me,” said Dean, heading towards the Impala.

Castiel grabbed his arm to stop him. “No.”

Dean wrenched his arm away, ignoring the pain. “How do expect to stop the Coltwithout a mobile suit? The only way we can stop him is to talk him down. For that, you need me. Look… I’m not going to pilot Michael.”

“How do you I know you’re not lying to me.”

“You don’t,” said Dean. “But we don’t have any time to waste. Bobby, have you got this covered?” he asked indicating the mess that was once Ruby.

“You boys go. Bring him back,” said Bobby. “And don’t do anything stupid.”

Dean couldn’t say ‘yes’ to that, so he headed for the Impalawithout a word. Castiel followed him. When Dean entered the pilot seat, Castiel protested, “Dean…”

“I’m not letting you pilot her. If you’re coming, get in the co-pilot seat. Otherwise, I’ll go without you.”

Cas did not look pleased, but he took the seat beside him in the Impala _,_ and Dean fired up the engine, setting the destination for Earth. 


	14. Lucifer

As they headed out of the colony, Dean asked, “How does Sam even know how to pilot a mobile suit?”

He didn’t hear Castiel’s answer, because at that moment, Dean saw the arm of a mobile suit float by his window. For a moment, he worried that it belonged to the Coltbut then he spotted the torso of the angel class ship, which was ripped in half.

“Holy shit,” said Dean, thinking of Samandriel. Sure he’d been an Earth soldier, but he was practically a kid, and he wasn’t an asshole like most of the Earth soldiers Dean had met.

“Dean… You have to be prepared for the fact that Sam is not Sam anymore.”

“You think Sammy did this?”

Castiel didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. They both knew that it could only have been Sam. But the Sam that Dean knew couldn’t have done this.

“How can Lucifer be controlling him?” asked Dean. “Sam never said yes. And he’s not even in the damn archangel.”

“I don’t know,” said Castiel. “The Lucifer OS has never functioned as it was expected to, unlike the other archangels. My guess is that Sam must somehow be partially joined with Lucifer. Once an archangel and pilot have been joined, the connection continues regardless of the proximity of the physical ship and the pilot.”

“So, Lucifer is in Sammy’s head, controlling him.”

“It appears so, yes,” said Cas.

“Then what was the deal with Ruby? Was she an Earth army plant trying to get Sam to pilot Lucifer?”

“No, I don’t think so,” said Castiel. “If she’d been an Earth soldier, Michael’s pilot would have been her first priority.”

Dean looked at Castiel wondering for a moment if he had been assigned to get close to Dean and convince him to pilot Michael, but he quickly dismissed the idea. Castiel had never encouraged him to pilot the archangel.

Castiel continued, “I think she was a Knight of Hell.”

“Why would a Knight of Hell want to activate an archangel?”

“It’s not just any archangel: it’s Lucifer,” said Cas. “According to our intelligence, there is a faction within the Knights of Hell that sees Lucifer as their saviour.”

“That’s fucking crazy.”

“They are Knights of Hell,” said Cas, as if it explained everything. “They want to revive Lucifer because they believe Lucifer is on their side. They believe that they can use Lucifer to overthrow the Earth government.”

“Yeah, well if Lucifer’s current rampage is anything to go by, Lucifer doesn’t give a crap about overthrowing governments. He’s shooting anything that moves.”

Castiel nodded in agreement. “Yes, it’s foolish to think that a human can control an archangel.” He looked sidelong at Dean, making it clear that he was no longer talking about Lucifer. 

Dean let the comment slide. By the cold and formal treatment Castiel was giving him, Dean knew that they were beyond apologies. He couldn’t apologize anyway, because he didn’t regret what he’d done. He would have done anything to save Sammy. But now the situation had changed and the only thing he could afford to think about was stopping Sammy from giving himself over to Lucifer completely.

He thought about Ruby’s last words – about how Sammy was doing this to prove himself to Dean. If there was one thing that Dean regretted, it was being so hard on Sammy after he’d left the Colony Militia. Why had Dean been such a stubborn ass about getting his brother back into this shitty life? He was ashamed to admit it to himself, but he hadn’t wanted to be alone. It was Dean’s selfishness that had brought them all here. This was all his fault.

He thought about confessing this to Castiel, but when he looked at the stubborn set of Cas’ jaw, he reconsidered. They weren’t friends anymore. They probably wouldn’t be again.

A thick silence followed that lasted the rest of their journey to Earth. Dean concentrated on flying the Impalaas fast as it could go, while keeping an eye on his radar for any sign of the Colt.

They were nearing Earth’s atmosphere when Dean spotted several ships on his radar. Almost immediately, Dean’s comm was hailed.

“Hey Cas. You’re probably going to need to handle this part,” said Dean.

_United Earth Empire patrol to Impala. Stop your ship and prepare to be boarded._

“Friendly fellas,” muttered Dean to Cas.

Cas replied, “This is Major Castiel of the United Earth Armed Forces assigned to Earth Base 023. I’m transmitting my credentials now,” he said, typing in a sequence of numbers. “I am on a special mission for General Zachariah. Stand down.”

There was a pause as the comm cut off. Dean wiped a bead of sweat pooling on his forehead as the comm silence stretched on.

He nearly jumped when the comm crackled, signalling the return of the signal.

 _Hello Castiel_.

The sound of the voice on the other of the comm set Dean’s teeth on edge. It was Zachariah. _I’m afraid your ruse has failed, Castiel. But you did well to bring Dean Winchester here, even if you didn’t do so out of a sense of loyalty._

On instinct, Dean reached for the throttle.

“Don’t,” said Castiel, putting a hand over his to stop him. “There’s nothing we can do.”

With a heavy heart, Dean powered down his ship and waited for the Earth mobile suits to swarm them. Two mobile suits towed the Impala towards the Earth. They were brought to a military base, and then taken out of the ship at gun point and patted down.

When Zachariah walked into the hangar with his armed guard, he had smug smile on his face.

“Dean Winchester and Castiel – my two favourite rebels. Welcome to my new base.”

Castiel was glaring daggers at Zachariah.

Dean said to him, “You knew we’d be here.”

“You can thank your brother for that,” said Zachariah. “He surrendered to us two hours ago. He agreed to pilot Lucifer, and he said he knew how to find the archangel. He also told us his big brother wouldn’t be far behind.”

That meant that Sam hadn’t known that Ruby would try to kill him. At least there was that small mercy.

Zachariah continued, “Sam and his armed guard are already getting ready to leave.”

“Let me see him,” yelled Dean, reaching out to grab the Earth general.

He didn’t get far before one of his escorts grabbed him and pinned his arms behind his back, causing him to scream in pain at the mistreatment of sprained shoulder.

“I don’t think I will,” said Zachariah.

Through the pain, Dean spat out, “Then you might as well kill me, because I will never pilot Michael for you.”

“We’ll see,” said Zachariah, unconvinced.

This time Cas broke in. “Zachariah, you cannot allow Sam to pilot the Lucifer archangel. Surely, you can see that it’s unstable.”

“That’s only because the other pilot is unsuitable to fly the archangel. Sam is the perfect match.”

Castiel continued, “The only reason Sam has agreed to pilot Lucifer is because a Knight of Hell convinced him that he should. Don’t you see this is what the enemy wants?”

The Earth General scoffed. “The Knights of Hell are delusional. They think that Lucifer belongs to them. The Great Unifier made Lucifer. He’s one of ours.”

“Now you’re delusional,” yelled Dean.

“Only time will tell. But I guess we’d better keep you around, just in case,” said Zachariah. He turned to their escorts and ordered, “Lock them up.”

Their prison was a small, dark concrete room with a small cot, big enough for only one of them, and metal bucket in the other corner. When the heavy metal doors closed behind them, Dean felt a keen sense of despair. His brother was out there, heading for Lucifer and there was nothing Dean could do to stop him. He had never felt so helpless in his life.

“I’m sorry dad,” he whispered as he slid down the concrete wall, setting himself down on the floor. “I couldn’t protect him.”

He heard the rustling of cloth as Cas moved in, kneeling on the floor across from him. “Dean… it’s not too late.”

Dean turned away from him. The last thing he wanted right now was to be comforted.

With a sigh, Cas rose and went to sit on the floor on the other side of the room. They were sitting like this for a few minutes before Cas said, “Thank you, Dean.”

“For what?”

“For telling Zachariah that you would not pilot Michael. I apologize for what I said before.”

Dean didn’t have a response for that. He wasn’t even sure why he’d been so vehement about not piloting Michael – maybe he had just wanted to wipe that smug look off of Zachariah’s face. Or maybe it was that voice in his head that kept saying it was wrong, and there was no way he could justify bringing that monster back to life. But how else could he save his brother? The only way they were going to let him out of the cell was if he agreed to pilot Michael, and then he would be able to reach his brother. Unless, of course, Michael took him over completely, and then no one would be able to help his brother. In fact, the original Michael had killed Lucifer. But Dean could never kill his brother, could he?

Gradually, the pain killers he’d taken that morning wore off and physical torture accompanied the mental torture. He lay down on the concrete, hoping he could sleep the pain off, if only he could stop thinking for two seconds.

Cas’ voice broke through his thoughts. “Take the bed, Dean. You’re injured.”

“Thanks to you,” snapped Dean. He didn’t know why he was angry with the Earther. He knew he deserved what Cas had done, and more. But his presence here was a further reminder of his guilt and his failures. Cas had betrayed everything he’d known for Dean, and then Dean had abandoned him. And now… Cas was locked up because of him. He curled up into a ball, and closed his eyes, willing for sleep to come.

After an hour of starring at the concrete floor, there was a banging at the door, followed by a voice yelling, “Move to the back of the cell. Face down on the floor, hands behind your back.”

Slowly, Dean rose and joined Castiel at the back of the cell. They lay down on the floor with hands behind their back. As soon as they’d taken the position, the door burst open. Dean peered over his shoulder as two large men came in and roughly pulled Cas from the ground, dragging him out of the cell. In only a few seconds, the chaos ended and the door slammed shut, leaving Dean alone in the cell.

Instantly, he regretted thinking that he hadn’t wanted Cas here. What were they going to do to him? Would he ever see Cas again? Why had he been so stubborn?

###

The voice whispered in Sam’s head, _We’re getting closer. Northeast, 50 kilometres._

Sam told the pilot, “Head northeast. Lucifer’s close – about 50 kilometres away.”

They were on an Earth Transport ship. He stood behind the pilot and co-pilot, while two guards stood behind him. Clearly Zachariah did not completely trust Sam, but in their desperation, they were leading him to a weapon that would destroy the United Earth Empire.

The Empire had to go – for everyone that had died because of it: Jo, Ellen, Ash, and all those prisoners on the base. His parents too.

_Don’t forget Jess._

For Jess most of all. They had killed his chance at a normal life. He could have had his 9-5 life with a wife and kids, which was something he never could have imagined growing up under the rule of John Winchester. In the end, his father had been right. None of them could have a normal life as long as the Empire still ruled.

_The Knights of Hell need to go too._

Sam agreed. Ruby may have been right about him needing to join with Lucifer, but the Knights of Hell were as much of a problem as the Empire. It wasn’t personal. She liked Ruby well enough but–

_Her and all of her kind need to burn._

For the good of all the innocents.

_To cleanse the world._

No, that’s not right. Or is it? More and more, it was becoming difficult to distinguish between his thoughts and Lucifer’s.

_Don’t think of us as two people. We’re one. We’re about to be._

No! I’m not going to get lost in you. I’m Sam. You’re Lucifer.

_I’m Sam. I’m Lucifer._

I need to control the archangel so we can… what were we going to do?

_You are the archangel._

A voice from the outside broke through Sam’s increasingly confused thoughts.

“A massive object has appeared on the radar. It’s heading for us at a fast pace. It has to be an archangel,” said the co-pilot.

The pilot opened his coms. “Angels fan out. Alpha and Bravo, scout ahead and report back. If you sight the archangel, do not engage.”

Excitement filled Sam, mingling with trepidation. Was it too late to turn back?

The excitement continued to rise, but now it was turning into something darker. His blood was rising. He had the sudden urge to throttle the pilot in front of him.

_Down boy._

That wasn’t me. That was you.

_Was it?_

“Alpha and Bravo have made contact,” said the co-pilot. “Wait… they’ve disappeared off the radar.” The co-pilot was sweating as he watched the radar without blinking. 

Sam watched his fear with satisfaction.

The co-pilot continued, “We’re about to make contact.”

The pilot turned to Sam and said, “Can you speak to it? Make it stand down.”

 _Land the ship,_ ordered Lucifer.

“You need to set the ship down,” said Sam. “I need to speak to it in person.”

“That’s a violation of our orders,” said the co-pilot. “We’re supposed to bring you back with Lucifer and complete the joining in the secured facility.”

“You said you could control it,” accused the pilot.

 _You are the archangel_.

“I can,” said Sam. “And if you don’t put us down, the archangel will kill the rest of the mobile suits out there.”

“But it won’t kill us,” said the co-pilot. “Not while you’re here. We can’t set the ship down.”

“Agreed,” said the pilot. “Secure the prisoner,” he ordered the guards.

One of the guards reached for his arm.

Sam dropped to his stomach just as a blast hit the ship. The guards were taken off their feet and thrown to the back of the ship. He slid down the ship with them, but before they could recover, he snatched one of their pistols, and pointed it at them.

 _Shoot_.

“No,” said Sam.

The guards looked at each other.

_They will shoot you._

“Sam. Put the gun down,” said the pilot. “We’re setting the ship down.”

_Too late for that._

But they’re letting us go…

The gun went off in his hand, shooting the first guard in the head. Before he understood what was happening, he aimed and fired at the second guard.

Sam dropped the gun like it was poison. 

I didn’t do that. That was you.

_Pick it up!_

The pilot reached for the pistol on his hip.

If Sam didn’t do what Lucifer said, he would die. He picked up the pistol, pointed it at the pilot, closed his eyes, and shot him.

When he opened his eyes, Sam saw the pilot on the ground – dead.

Beside the body, the co-pilot raised his hands in surrender and cried, “Don’t shoot me.”

_Shoot him._

“Take out your pistol and put it on the ground,” he said, ignoring the voice.

_Shoot him._

“Okay…”

Sam watched him carefully as he took the grip of his pistol. “Slowly…”

_Shoot him._

Shut the fuck up.

The co-pilot kept the muzzle pointed down as he slowly slid the gun out.

_Shoot him._

Sam’s eyes widened as he spotted the Lucifer archangel through the window. He had seen the archangel before, he’d even been inside of it. But it had never felt like this before.

_Shoot him now!_

The co-pilot made a sudden movement and Sam shot the pistol, taking him in the chest. The man fell to the ground, still alive, giving him this look of disgust and betrayal. Sam couldn’t stand that look, so he drew closer and shot the man between the eyes.

The archangel Lucifer took hold of the transport ship in the palm of its hand, and brought it up to the cockpit opening in its face. Sam activated the emergency release on the door hatch, opening it up. Lucifer’s cockpit opened up and spat out its pilot at Sam’s feet. Sam knelt down to look at the sickly man. His skin was burning hot, and he didn’t have the strength to move.

_He wasn’t worthy of me. Not like you._

Sam felt sorry for the man, so he dragged him into the ship. But when he looked back at Lucifer, all thoughts of the pilot fell to the side and he felt himself magnetically drawn to the archangel.

Sam stepped into the cockpit. When he sat inside, he had the feeling like he was putting on a glove that fit him perfectly. How could he have lived so long without this – this feeling of belonging to something so completely?

_Say Yes._

Why not?

Then he thought of Dean.

“You weren’t hurt Dean, will you?”

_Your parents, Jess, your friends - they died because of them: the Earth Empire and the Knights of Hell._

Sam could see the faces of his parents and Jess flash through his head.

_They will kill Dean too. They have your brother. Only together do we have the power to free him._

“You’re right. We have to stop them.”

_Say Yes._

Why was he hesitating? He had to do this. He had no choice.

_They have to be stopped._

“Yes!”

In the blink of an eye, the world changed. Sam couldn’t see Dean’s face anymore. His parents were gone and so were Jess. There was another man in his sights: the man they called the Great Unifier. Sam/Lucifer was filled was an incredible rage.

“Burn it down!”

Sam/Lucifer grabbed the throttle.

“Let’s do this.”

Sam had one last thought he took the archangel off the ground: Did I fuck this up Dean?


	15. Leverage

Dean’s head snapped up when there was a bang on the door. It had been hours since they’d taken Cas.

The voice on the other side yelled, “You know the drill. Back of the cage. On your stomach.”

He considered telling them to fuck off, but he needed to know what happened to Cas, so he did as he was told. When the door opened, he heard Cas moan as they threw him back inside the prison, bruised and bloodied.

Dean started to get up. “What the fuck did you do to him?”

The guard threw something some kind of case at his face, knocking him back to ground, before they slammed the door shut. The case cracked open, spilling its contents on the ground – bandages, medical tape, and ointment.

Ignoring the sharp pain on his forehead, Dean checked on Cas who lay there limply. The t-shirt he was wearing was sliced open in multiple places where they had marked him with long shallow cuts. Dean cupped his face in his hands to keep Cas’ head from rolling back. His face was swelling where he’d been beaten, and dried blood carved path from his nose down to his chin.

“Cas. What did they do to you?”

Cas blinked, as his eyes tried to focus. He raised his hand towards Dean’s face, and then hissed in pain, dropping his arm.

Dean hugged him to his chest, trying to avoid touching the long cuts that were all over his back too. “I’ll kill them,” he said quietly.

Cas was limp in his arms, breathing shallow. Dean knew he had to tend to the man’s wounds, but he was seized by an irrational fear that if he let Cas go for second, he would slip away forever.

“Dean…” Cas’ voice was weak, but it broke through Dean’s paralysis.

He had to act now – stop the bleeding, clean the wounds, prevent infection…

“Listen Cas… I’m going to set you down on the bed.”

But when Dean attempted to lift him, Cas hissed in pain and said, “No…” in a panicked voice.

“Okay,” said Dean, setting him back down.

He checked Cas’ rib area and found some significant swelling.

“You could have a cracked rib,” he said. “So I’m not going to try to move you, but I have to patch up these wounds. It might hurt so…”

“I understand,” said Cas, looking up at Dean with trusting blue eyes.

On a whim, Dean bent over and kissed him lightly on bruised lips, and then he got to work.

He found a bottle of water that had rolled under the bed and cloth from inside the cracked medical kit. Dean gingerly pulled the shirt up and away from the wounds, tearing open fresh scabs and causing Cas to hiss and grab Dean’s leg. Dean then dabbed the wounds with the wetted cloth to get most of the blood off, before he applied appointment and put on the bandages.

Once finished, he said to Cas, “I’m sorry about this, but I have to get your back now.”

Turning him over was the hardest part. At one point, Cas cried out, tensing, and then he let go, exhaling with a sob as he began to cry into the concrete floor, his tears mingling with the dried blood on the floor.

Heartbroken, Dean stroked his hair and promised, “It will be over soon.”

Those bastards hadn’t left any pain killers, so Dean couldn’t do anything Cas’ pain. After Dean had finished bandaging up his back, he knew he couldn’t leave him face down on the cold concrete, but he hesitated to move him.

“Cas… I’m going to try to sit you up, okay?”

Cas didn’t reply, but he held his breath, as if waiting for Dean to act.

Dean gently turned him back on to his back, and then put his legs on either side of Cas, using his body to prop up Cas enough into a semi-sitting position, so that Cas could drink the rest of the bottled water. Slowly, he drank until the last drop was gone, and then he closed his eyes, sinking into Dean, his breathing gradually easing.

It wasn’t the most comfortable position for Dean, but he didn’t dare move. Slowly and quietly so as not to disturb Cas, he reached for towards the bed and pulled of the sheet, draping it over Cas. Finally, he slept.

A few hours later, Cas blinked his eyes open. His eyes darted up at Dean and then around the prison, as if he was remembering where he was. When he tried to sit up on his own, he groaned.

“Whoa, take it easy,” said Dean. “You’ll start bleeding again if you move around too much, and you probably have a broken rib.”

“It feels like it,” said Cas. Ignoring Dean’s advice, he tried to sit up anyway, hissing and groaning the whole ordeal. “Help me to the bed,” he said.

Cas was evidently going to try standing without his help if he refused, so Dean put an arm around his hips and draped Cas’ arm over his shoulders, and then stood slowly, bringing Cas to the bed, and letting him down gently.

The Earther released the breath he was holding and then lowered his back to the wall, propping himself there.

“You okay, Cas?” asked Dean.

“I will be,” he replied, with a stoic expression. Even for Cas, he was sitting very stiffly, being careful not to move as little as possible as he spoke.

“What did they want from you?”

“Information. They wanted to know what happened to the other prisoners on the base.”

“What did you say?”

“I told them the truth,” said Cas. “I can only assume that they died. I only took you and Sam with me. Needless to say, they didn’t believe me.”

Dean nodded, accepting the lie. Cas was clearly trying to tell him that the Earthers were listening to everything they were saying, but Dean had already assumed that. They were obviously being watched too.

“You should know…” began Cas. “I heard them tell Zachariah that they lost contact with Sam and his escorts after they had closed in on Lucifer’s location.”

Dean’s heart seized. Was Sam dead?

“I wish I could tell you more, Dean. But… I don’t think Lucifer would kill Sam – not while they are connected. It is likely, however, that they have joined.”

“Fuck,” said Dean, holding his head in his hands. Was it too late? He couldn’t believe that. He couldn’t afford to believe it. He could still reach him, if he couldn’t only get out of here. “I can get him back,” he told Cas.

Cas looked skeptical. “I already told you, Dean. You have to be prepared…”

“Damn it. He’s my brother. I’m not giving up on him!” he yelled.

Cas blinked at Dean and was silent for a moment, until he finally said, “I understand Dean. I will do whatever I can to help you.”

Dean let out a sigh, rubbing his forehead in frustration. “You don’t have to do that Cas. You’ve already done enough. Listen… if they interrogate you again, just tell them what they want to know. I can’t… I just can’t watch this shit happen to you and know that it’s my fault.”

Cas looked up at Dean with furrowed eyebrows. “You think this is your fault? It’s not Dean. I made my choices. I knew the consequences, and if I had to do it over again, I would make the same choices. You didn’t make me do anything, so I won’t let you feel guilty for things you didn’t do.”

Dean looked away. He wasn’t going to let Cas convince him that he was off the hook, but he didn’t want to start an argument while the other man looked like he’d just been stomped on by a mobile suit. He tried to think of something to say to lighten the mood – some kind of quip or pop culture reference that Cas wouldn’t get, but he kept thinking about his brother, and how helpless Dean was to protect him right now. He looked at the door to their prison, believing for a moment that with all of his rage, he could pound through it get out of this concrete hell. And then sighing in defeat when he knew it was impossible.

“Dean…”

Dean looked at Cas.

Cas continued, “I was wondering what you were like as a child. Were you and your brother close?”

Dean turned around, annoyed. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“I had several siblings, but I was never close with any of them. Do you remember your mother?”

Cas looked at him with an innocent look on his face. Dean knew that he was trying to distract him. It was probably for the best. Exhaling, he uncurled his fists and sat down beside Cas, being careful not to jostle the bed too much.

He thought about his mother, remembering a time when the four of them – him, Sammy, and their mother and father – were a happy family. And Sammy was too young to remember any of it. Finally, Dean pronounced, “Mom was the best,” before he started to tell Cas his life story.

Cas listened quietly, until he began to yawn and Dean insisted that they should sleep. He got up, leaving the other man the bed, but Cas reached up and took his hand. “Stay,” he said, with an earnest look in his dark blue eyes.

The bed was a small rickety thing. There wasn’t enough room for both of them to lie side by side. “Cas… the bed’s not really big enough…”

“I can’t lie down anyway. It hurts too much,” said Cas. “It’s best if I sleep like this.” He was sitting propped up against the wall in the middle of the bed. “Besides, we’ll have to share the only blanket.”

“At least take the pillow,” offered Dean.

Cas slowly moved away from the wall a bit, so Dean could insert the pillow.

Dean slept on his side, curling around Cas. He closed his eyes, trying to sleep, his mouth dry from thirst and stomach aching with hunger. He hadn’t had anything to drink or eat all day. When he opened his eyes, Cas was watching him.

“Dude. Quit watching me. It’s creepy.”

“You’re beautiful Dean.”

Dean felt his cheeks heat up as he stammered, “Dude… that’s so not… I’m a fucking man. A fucking masculine man. I’ll give you ‘hot’, or maybe even ‘bootylicious’…”

Cas wrinkled his face in confusion.

Dean continued, “But I am not beautiful.”

“I disagree,” said Cas.

“Fuck off,” said Dean in a mock serious tone.

Cas raised an eyebrow and said, “But I have nowhere to go.”

“You don’t, do you?” said Dean, grinning. He sat up and leaned in towards Cas as if he were going to kiss him on the lips, and then he veered up to the side taking the bottom of his earlobe between his teeth.

Cas made strangled sound, which turned into a groan when he tried to jerk away.

“Oh shit Cas… I didn’t mean to…”

“It’s okay Dean… I deserved it.” He was smiling now. “However, you should expect retaliation when we leave here.”

Dean’s face fell. He’d almost forgotten that they were locked up. But the way Cas spoke, it was as if he believed they would be leaving. Dean didn’t. The only reason way that he could leave this cage was if he agreed to pilot Michael, and then he would never see Cas again – at least not as himself. He thought he’d already prepared himself for that, but the longer he stayed with Cas, the harder it would be to let him go.

“Did I say something wrong?” asked Cas, concerned.

Dean didn’t want him to worry, so he leaned in and placed a kiss on his lips. Cas kissed back. The kiss was gentler than any of their previous kisses, but it made Dean’s lips tingle, and as it went on, a deep pleasure settled low in his gut. He was hard.  

Cas pulled away from the kiss, straining to breathe, as he held his bruised side.

“Fucking Zachariah,” said Dean. The thought of that asshole was an instant erection killer.

“I’m okay,” said Cas.

“You’re fucking not,” said Dean, lying back down.

Cas didn’t say anything after that.

Dean closed his eyes.

He rose with a start at a sound from the door. Before he could react, a slat at the base of the door opened and a tray of food was slipped under.  

Dean got out of bed, picked up the tray and brought it to a bleary-eyed Cas.

“Hey – did you sleep?”

“A little,” he replied.

“Good news – breakfast is served. It’s some unidentifiable brown stuff that looks literally like shit.”

“Rehydrated field rations,” said Cas. “Don’t worry. It tastes better than it looks.”

Dean popped the lid on one of the bottles of water before passing it Cas, and then opened his own bottle and drank deeply.

Some time passed before they finally got word from the outside. There was a banging on the door, followed by the order to get on the ground.

Dean had to help Cas off the bed and to the ground. Only after they complied did the door open.

Two soldiers grabbed each of them by the arm and jerked them back up. Cas let out an involuntary yell of pain.

Low and behold, Dean stood before Zachariah. When he tried to pull away from his guard to punch the smirk of his face, one of Zachariah’s men nailed him in the gut with the butt of his rifle, forcing Dean to double over at the searing pain in his gut.

As Dean struggled to fill his lungs, Zachariah began to speak, “It isn’t very often that I admit to being wrong but it turns out we couldn’t control Lucifer.” His tone was casual as if he were admitting to a small mistake, and not to putting all of Earth in danger. “I guess it’s a good thing we still have you, isn’t it Dean?”

Dean stood up straight, looking Zachariah in the eyes. “I already fucking told you. I’m not getting in that thing.” And sure as hell was not going to be forced into killing his brother.

“It’s time for you to step up,” continued Zachariah, unwilling to accept Dean’s answer. “I’ll put it to you this way. You join with Michael, or I kill your boyfriend.”

A cold chill went through Dean.

“Dean…” said Cas. “You can’t!”

Why had Dean not seen this coming? It was the obvious move. They hadn’t even tried to conceal their affection. Dean had practically screamed ‘Cas is my weak point.’ It wasn’t fair… to have to choose between saving Cas and killing his brother. But he couldn’t kill his brother. On the other hand, was Sam even still inside Lucifer? And if he was, could Dean talk him down? Maybe Michael wouldn’t consume him… Who was he kidding? They were going to kill Cas regardless.

“Dean, you can’t be considering this,” said Cas.

Dean looked up at his eyes and saw a look of betrayal that hurt worse than anything.

Zachariah’s told him, “I’ll be generous Dean. I’ll give you 24 hours to decide, and the next time I enter this room, you say ‘yes’ or I’ll have Cas killed right here, in front of you.”

Before Dean could process his words, he left the room. The guards pushed them both sharply at the wall, before leaving and slamming the heaving metal door.

They were both silent. Unwilling to look at Cas, Dean turned his back to the Earth and faced the concrete hall, gazing into space until his brain started to function again. And then he realized that anything was preferable to starring at this concrete wall for the rest of his life. As much as he and Cas had tried, there was no way to escape this destiny.

Dean heard Cas calling his name, but he pushed the sound aside as a firm resolution settled in his heart. He was going to say ‘yes,’ and this time, Cas wouldn’t be able to stop him.


	16. Escape

“Dean, you can’t join with Michael.”

Dean had not told Cas of his resolution, but somehow, he knew.

“I’m not going to argue with you about this,” said Dean. “You’re not going to change my mind. I’m not going to watch you get murdered in front of me. You can’t ask me to do that Cas.”

“I’m one person,” said Cas. “You’re actions will endanger many lives.”

“Wake up Cas. We’re already facing the end of the world. What do you think Lucifer’s doing out there? Planting roses? If I don’t join with Michael, then nothing will stop Lucifer.”

“Dean. I’ve seen how much you care for Sam. If you kill him…”

“I won’t!” he yelled. “I mean I can’t. There’s got to be another way. If I can just talk to him.”

“If you join with Michael…”

“I know Cas, I know. Do you know how many times I’ve gone over this in my head? You know, I thought I actually had a choice, but it turns out I don’t. Zachariah’s not going to stop. He’ll kill you. He’ll torture me. He’ll take everything from me, and eventually, I’m going to say ‘yes’. So fuck this shit. Let’s get it over with.”

“I can’t accept that,” said Cas, stubbornly.

“You don’t have to,” said Dean. “It’s my decision. Wasn’t that what you told me?”

Cas looked down at flimsy mattress on which he was seated, not saying anything.

Dean turned from him to stare at the concrete wall.

The silence stretched on until Cas finally said, “Dean…”

“What do you want from me Cas?” asked Dean angrily, whirling to face the Earther. He hadn’t expected to see blue eyes full of pain.

“Can we not fight… not now?”

Dean’s eyes softened. He’d wanted to keep Cas at a distance. That would make it easier to leave, but his resolution was crumbling and he found himself walking to Cas’ side of the room and sitting on the bed beside him. He didn’t say anything as he put a comforting arm around the man’s shoulders. Cas leaned into his touch, laying his head on Dean’s shoulder, and they sat like this waiting.

At some point they slept. They didn’t know what time it was until there was a sound at the door. Dean braced himself. He looked at Cas, who took his hand. Then the slat at the base of the door opened a tray was pushed inside.

“Talk about anti-climactic,” said Dean rising and grabbing their food tray.

Dean tried to eat, but he could barely manage a few bites as they waited in silence.

“He’s late,” pronounced Dean, after the unbearable wait continued to stretch on. He couldn’t know for sure how long it had been, but they’d already had their once a day feeding, and it felt like 24 hours had passed.  

“Yes,” agreed Cas.

A few more hours passed before the knock at the door came, announcing Zachariah.

They took their positions on the ground, and then they were told to rise.  

There was no point belabouring this. Dean opened his mouth to say he would join with Michael, but Zachariah raised a finger.

“Hold that thought,” he said to Dean. “I have to inform you boys, there’s been a change in circumstances. We no longer need you to pilot Michael. We have found an 85% match for Michael.

“But how?” asked Cas. “We’ve been testing pilots for years without success…”

“Given that two brothers were found to be perfect matches for the archangels, we decided to test the rest of the family,” replied Zachariah.

“I don’t have any other family,” protested Dean.

“The DNA records in the Census tell a different story. In fact, you have a half-brother named Adam in Lebanon colony.”

Dean was struck speechless. Had his father been unfaithful to his mother or had it happened after her death. “How old is he?”

“18 years old,” replied Zachariah.

That meant he was born in 290 – seven years after the fire. It made sense. His father would have been travelling across the colonies on missions for the militia. He often left Dean alone to take care of Sammy. Had John even known that he’d fathered another child? Did Adam know he had two brothers out there?

Zachariah told him, “Unlike you and Sam, Adam has never been involved in your Colony Militia. It didn’t take much to convince him. His mother will live out the rest of her life in the comforts of an Earth home, and she’ll never have to work again.”

“I though you said that I was Michael’s true pilot. I have 100% compatibility with Michael,” argued Dean.

“Now you want to pilot Michael? I can’t keep up with your indecisiveness Dean.”

“Yes,” said Dean. It wasn’t that he wanted to pilot Michael. He just didn’t want Adam to do it. The kid was only 18 and even though he’d never met him, they were still family. Also, the fact that Adam had never met Sam would mean that he wouldn’t hesitate to kill Lucifer. If Zachariah didn’t let Dean pilot Michael, Sam was dead for sure.

Zachariah smiled widely. “That’s good to hear Dean. Unfortunately, we will not be needing your services at the moment. But if a vacancy opens up, I’ll be sure to let you know.”

“Come on, Zachariah. You know I’m a better match. Give me one good reason why you would pick Adam over me.”

“Because I don’t trust you,” he said, flatly. With a smirk he turned around to leave the room.

“How long are you going to keep us here like this?” yelled Dean, resisting the urge to leap for the asshole Earther’s throat.

“I’ll be in touch,” said Zachariah lightly as he left with his guards.

“Fuck!” yelled Dean, once the door had closed behind him. He punched the metal door, and yelled “Fuck” again, kicking it repeatedly.

Behind him, he heard Cas sit on the bed.

When Dean looked back at the Earther, he had an inscrutable look on his face. With his head in his hands, he joined Cas sitting on the bed as they continued to wait, unsure of how long he would be able to last before losing his mind.

###

Michael had returned. Lucifer didn’t need to hear the rumours to know the truth of it. He’d felt it when Michael powered up at last. Finally, after all these years, he would see his brother again – the brother who had killed him on the orders of their father, the Great Unifier.

They had all thought he’d gone mad – his father and his brothers, but they didn’t understand, and they never could understand. They were good little soldiers – following every order, not understanding that their own father treated them as tools, denying them free will and spitting on their sentience. As archangels, they had unimaginable power. They had surpassed their father and the rest of the inhabitants of Earth – the humans, this pestilence that walked the earth on two feet of flesh, bone, and blood. They had no right to tell him what to do. They didn’t even deserve to walk on this Earth.

Gabriel had befriended the humans. His death had been necessary. Meanwhile, Raphael hid among the humans, forsaking his superior form in order to play the human game of politics. And Michael… he had hunted down his own brother. But still… maybe there was a chance for Michael. Lucifer would give him a choice. Choose him over the humans or burn with them.

At the back of his mind, a small voice tried to urge him to remember something… a name? Dean? He pushed the voice aside. He had important things to think about – like his meeting with Michael. But first, he would go to Earth headquarters and make quick work of Raphael and his fellow politicians, carving out the heart of the Earth Empire. And maybe then, Michael would finally listen to him.

###

Days had passed. Incredibly long, boring yet stressful days in which Dean and Cas waited for news from the outside world. Did Sam still live? Were Michael and Lucifer fighting at this very moment? How many people had Sam killed while being trapped inside of Lucifer?

In all these days, their only contact with the outside world was the opening of the small slat for delivery of their food. They were both starting to stink. Dean was feeling grimy and disgusting from not being able to wash, and his facial skin was itchy from where facial hair was starting to grow in. Their waste bucket was starting to get full and the smell was unbearable.

Cas did his best to try to distract him. He even spoke about his family, which he’d seemed reluctant to talk about. He’d had many siblings, but had been close to none of them. As the son of a member of the high council, Naomi, Cas and his siblings had been raised to be soldiers of the Empire. In his family, the Empire came before everything, including family and friendships.

As part of his upbringing, each of his siblings had been subjected to gene therapies to increase their intellectual acuity and physical abilities, and as a result of this, Cas had fast healing abilities. It took only a few days for his broken ribs to heal enough so that he had a free range of movement, and the gashes on his back and his front had healed into long scars.

They slept on the same bed every night. Dean took the very edge of the bed, giving Cas his space to heal, and while he was healing, Cas slept a lot. With nothing else to, Dean started to sleep as much as possible.  

On the fifth or sixth day of their incarceration, as they settled down to sleep, Cas declared, “I feel that I healed sufficiently. I would like to have sex with you again.”

Dean felt his cheeks turn red at the boldness of the statement.

“Cas… they can see everything we do. They’re watching us with cameras.”

“I understand. We don’t have do anything if you’re uncomfortable,” said Cas.

Dean couldn’t sleep after that. He looked over at Cas, who was also staring at the ceiling with his eyes wide open. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to fuck Cas. In fact, those particularly fantasies often helped to pass the time. But… there was a distance between them that Dean didn’t know how to broach. They’d never really talked about how Dean had betrayed Cas after their first night together, and Dean had no desire to bring the subject up.

Out of nowhere, Cas spoke. “I want to ask you something, Dean?”

“What is it?”

“When we had sex for the first time, was it because you knew you were never going to see me again?”

With a sigh, Dean swung his legs off the bed and onto the cold concrete floor. He had been avoiding this conversation, but he owed Cas the truth. “I’ll be honest with you Cas, it made it easier.”

Cas didn’t show any emotion as he said, “I understand.”

“I don’t think you do…”

Cas rose from his sleeping position to sit on the bed, facing Dean. He said, “I understand. You’ve been raised to believe the worst of Earthers. It couldn’t be easy to...”

“Stop Cas. Just listen,” he said taking Cas’ hand and looking him in the eye, and seeing hunger there. He continued, “Look. I’ve slept with a lot of women, and some men…”

Cas narrowed his eyes.

Dean tried again. “Shit… I mean… I sleep with all sorts of people, so an Earther’s no big deal. I mean it’s not like it means anything. Not us. I meant, the sleeping around part.”

Cas was looking less than pleased.

“I can’t fucking do this,” said Dean, throwing his hands up in defeat and walking to the other side of the room.

“Do what?” asked Cas.

“I don’t do commitment,” explained Dean, turning around.

Cas had his head quirked to the side and his eyes were squinting. “I don’t follow.”

“Forget it,” said Dean.

“Please explain,” insisted Cas.

“I mean… I like you,” he blurted out. “I like you a lot.”

“I like you too Dean,” said Cas, as if it were something obvious.

“That’s the problem. I was just af…” he stopped. He didn’t want to use the word ‘afraid.’ He already sounded like enough of a loser.

“Dean, I don’t take what we did lightly. I couldn’t… not where you’re involved. I fell for you the first time we met, and I’ve never felt that way about anyone. I couldn’t help but admire your courage and your defiance. And the way you protected your brother and the leadership role you took among your fellow prisoners… Dean – you’re amazing.”

Dean looked away, thoroughly discomfited by the high praise.

Cas continued, “But I was cognizant of the fact that you were my prisoner. It wouldn’t have been right for me to express my feelings and… I had never imagined that you felt the same way.”

Dean’s response was barely audible. “I do.”

The Earther’s eyes lit up. He stood and took two strides the broach the distance between them. Dean didn’t resist as Cas took his face between his hands and begin to kiss his lips gently and thoroughly. His whole body shuddered in anticipation. He reached through the tattered remains of Cas’ shirt to run his hands up tight abs and then down, slipping his fingers under the loose band of his jeans, tauntingly caressing the darks curls of his pubic hair. Cas responded a with a sharp thrust of his pelvis, pressing up against Dean’s rapidly hardening package.

Dean moaned against Cas’ lips and then cupped his tight ass in his hands to keep them locked together as he pushed them towards the bed. The mattress bounced as they fell into it. Dean immediately resumed kissing Cas, exploring the inside of his mouth with his tongue. He dragged his fingers through Cas’ matted hair.

Cas flipped them with strong arms so that he was on top. Cold hands slipped under Dean’s shirt, sliding up his abs and his pecks, and then under his arms as Cas began to strip his shirt off. The shirt briefly came between their kissing, before it was off his head and thrown to the other side of the room.

Before Dean could return the favour, Cas slipped down and began pressing kisses the length of his torso, and then higher until he reached Dean’s sensitive nipples. With a grin, Cas began to suck on his left nipple, causing Dean to writhe beneath him and let out an involuntary moan.

Suddenly conscious of the camera that was watching them, Dean sat up despite Cas’ protest and grabbed the blanket that had been pushed to the bottom of the bed and brought it over top them, managing to flip Cas down onto the bed in the process. Cas let out a deep laugh at the unexpected turn of events. Dean silenced him by licking and sucking down his abs, getting lower until he had to push down his pants and underwear to give him access to more skin. With his thumb, Dean stroked the sensitive skin along Cas’ tantalizing hip bones, causing him to squirm a little, and then he leaned in and began to suck on the hip bone.

The sound that emanated from Cas was somewhere between a giggle and moan.

“That’s fucking adorable,” said Dean.

“That’s not fair,” said Cas. “I’m more ticklish than you. Well… except for this.”

He grabbed Dean around his shoulders and brought his lips to his right nipple. Dean jerked backwards as he laughed, and the blanket he’d been trying to keep over them fell to the floor.

“Leave it,” said Cas, with a sparkle of mischief in his eyes.

“You never struck me as an exhibitionist,” said Dean.

“Let’s make our watchers jealous,” he said, curling his legs around Dean’s and using it as leverage to flip him over so that he was on the bottom again.

Grabbing the waist of Dean’s jeans and his underwear, he tore them down. Dean’s penis popped up, swinging in the cold air of the cell. In an instant, cold turned to hot as Cas placed his mouth over the tip and then down the length of it.

Pleasure intensified in Dean’s gut and he began to moan. “Cas…”

Cas bobbed up and down as Dean gripped Cas’ hair.

“Cas. Fuck,” he muttered nearly incoherently as Cas continued.

Then suddenly, Cas stopped, saying, “Now that is fucking adorable.”

“Shut up,” said Dean, grinning uncontrollably as he sat up and pushed Cas back down to the bed, and tore off his pants in one smooth motion. Only the underwear remained. Dean’s hands played under the elastic of the underwear, tickling the sensitive skin there before moving down and grabbing his hard dick, and giving a few quick strokes.

Cas moaned, “Dean.”

Dean leaned in, suckling on his earlobe with his lips and then lightly with his teeth as his hands slid around to the back of Cas’ underwear, taking firm hold of his butt cheeks, prying them apart gently, and then stopping.

Cas kissed Dean’s neck, sucking on it, before whispering in his ear. “Please Dean…”

Dean reached a finger in, sliding his finger tip around the rim, before placing it in gently.

Cas tensed, pressing his body into Dean’s before he unclenched and Dean placed his finger in farther. Cas moaned, as his thrust his pelvis into Dean’s dick. Dean thrust back as he pulled down Cas’ underwear, giving them the skin on skin contact they craved. They rubbed their dicks together as Dean fingered Cas again. Their breathing began to get harder, as their rubbing turned to sharp thrusts, causing the bed to creak under their weight.

Cas reached down and began to stroke Dean’s dick.

“Cas… fuck… Cas…”

Dean began to stroke Cas in turn.

“Dean…”

Seeking a better angle, Dean pulled away from Cas grabbing his hips and flipping him onto his stomach. When Cas rose to his knees, Dean pressed himself to Cas’ back and reached around to grab his dick, pumping it with his hand as Cas moaned and fell to his hands.

“Dean… I’m…” He let out a strangled sound as he came hot slippery fluid into Dean’s hand.

Once he was fully spent, Cas sank into the mattress while Dean began to stroke himself with a come covered hand, admiring the thin ripples of back muscle under Cas’ skin as he pleasured himself.

“You’re fucking gorgeous,” said Dean.

Cas turned on his back, looking up at Dean with his breathtaking blue eyes. Dean came, spilling his fluid on Cas’ stomach. Letting out a contented breath, Dean collapsed, sinking into Cas who held him tightly, stroking his hair. They lay in this sticky mess, before Cas finally urged Dean up.

They cleaned up as best they could with the toilet paper, before curling up on the bed together.

After some time had passed, Cas turned to face Dean, and looking deeply into his eyes, he said, “Dean… We need to escape.”

On the surface, it was an obvious statement, but Dean understood what he was saying. Escape was likely impossible, but they had nothing to lose by making a desperate attempt, and Dean couldn’t have asked for a better final night together. Neither of them were willing to spend the rest of their lives trapped and forgotten in this cell.

Dean leaned in, brushing his lips against Cas’ lips as he agreed, “Yes.”

Cas continued, “The next time they come—”

“We fight,” finished Dean.

The Earther nodded.

Dean pulled him close, and Cas wrapped himself around Dean. They slept with limbs intertwined.

As it happened, their chance for escape arrived the next day.

It started with a bang at the door.

There was no point standing by the door and waiting for their captors to enter, as they wouldn’t until the cameras showed that Dean and Cas were lying on the ground with hands behind their back. As they started to kneel to the floor, the door opened unexpectedly.

Dean didn’t bother to look back as he snapped to his feet and threw himself backwards into the guards in hopes to catch them unprepared.

He crashed into someone who went ‘oof’ as he hit the ground with Dean on top of him. Before the guard could get a chance to catch his breath, Dean slammed his head back, hitting the man in the nose. A crunching sound followed.

Looking up, he saw Cas beating the shit out of the other guard.

An unfamiliar voice spoke from the doorway. “Bloody hell! What a way to treat your saviours.”

Dean rose to his feet, leaving the guard clutching his bloody nose. He was face to face with a shorter man with dark hair and dark eyes that registered more annoyance than concern, despite the fact that he appeared unarmed.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Cas had stopped beating the guard but had him in a choke hold with one arm behind his back.

“What do you mean ‘saviours’?” asked Dean. “Who the hell are you?”

“Crowley. The enemy of your enemy,” he said cryptically. “And I take it you’re Dean Winchester.”

Cas spoke venomously. “You’re a Knight of Hell.”

“Give the imperial stiff a medal,” drawled Crowley.

“We won’t take help from you,” said Cas.

“Then, by all means stay in there. But then, Dean, you can say goodbye to your brother Sam.”

Dean turned to his friend. “Cas man… we have to.”

“We can’t afford to dawdle here,” said Crowley. “And please stop manhandling my men.”

With a dark glare and a certain reluctance, Cas let the guard go. The guards joined up with their master, and Dean and Cas followed the group out of the cell and down the hallway.

The lights of the hallway were a sharp burn in Dean’s eyes, which had become accustomed to the dim lighting of the cage. They didn’t walk very far before Crowley entered the open door of one of the cells. Inside the cell, a large hole had been blasted through the floor.

“Don’t look. Just jump,” said Crowley, shoving Dean down into the hole.

Dean’s boots connected with the metal floor of a transport ship. He moved away from the hole with only a moment to spare before Cas crashed down beside him. Dean took his arm and guided him away from the hole as Crowley and the rest of his crew came down.

The pilot and co-pilot were already in the ship waiting for them. On Crowley’s signal, they booted up the ship and guided it slowly through a tunnel just barely wide enough for the ship. They traveled the long tunnel until they turned into yet another tunnel.

“Where did the tunnel system come from?” asked Dean.

“I made it ages ago,” said Crowley. “Arranged for gas leak at the base, and after it was evacuated my team used blasters to make the tunnels.”

Dean wondered for a moment if the other Earth bases had similar tunnels underneath. Whoever this Crowley guy was, he was definitely a high ranking member of the Knights of Hell.

“Of course,” said Crowley. “Now that we’ve made use of this tunnel, we can never use it again. I hope you appreciate how expensive this rescue operation will be.”

“What do you want from us?” asked Dean. It wasn’t as if a Knight of Hell was going to go through the trouble of rescuing them without wanting something in return.

“Right to the point then,” said Crowley. “I want to make a deal.”

“What kind of deal?” asked Cas, narrowing his eyes.

“I’m not addressing you, you imperial puppet,” said in Crowley in disgust.

“What do you want?” demanded Dean.

“I want you to stop your brother and Michael from destroying the whole planet!”

“What makes you think I can do that?” asked Dean.

“Well, you see, you’re something of a last resort, what with Gabriel and Raphael dead.”

“Raphael is dead?” said Cas, shocked.

“He and his archangel, along with the rest of the high council were blown up when Lucifer destroyed Earth Empire headquarters yesterday. Meanwhile, Michael’s been looking for him on the other side of the planet, but now according to my sources, Lucifer is waiting for him at the ruins of the headquarters, and we don’t have much time.”

“Why do you need me to stop Lucifer? It sounds like Michael is headed there to do the job for you,” said Dean.

“And that’s bad luck for Sam Winchester,” said Crowley. “But getting to the heart of the matter, I need you to convince your brother to be a hero and use the self-destruct to take himself out along with Michael.”

“You want me to convince my brother to off himself?” said Dean, barely restraining himself from strangling the Knight of Hell.

“He’s dead either way Winchester. Michael will kill him. But, at least your brother’s death can mean something. I thought you were Colony Militia – committed to freedom from Imperial rule. Do you realize that freedom is now within your grasp? With the destruction of their headquarters, the Earth Empire is in shambles. But if you leave the Archangel Michael in their hands, they’ll be able to reassert control.”

Freedom for the colonies? It was what Dean had fought for his whole life. But for it to come at the cost of Sammy’s life? He could never make that sacrifice. On the other hand, maybe Crowley was right – Sam was dead either way. No matter what, Dean had to get to him. If he could just talk to Sammy, maybe he could get him to reject Lucifer. It was the only thing Dean could think of to save him.

“Fine,” said Dean. “So, how’s this going to work?”

“I have to admit – I’m surprised you’d be so quick to agree to a plan involving your brother’s death. My sources reported that you two were close.”

“Your sources?” asked Cas.

“Whose names I will not divulge,” he added.

“Hold on a second,” said Dean. “See, what I don’t get is why you want to stop Lucifer. I mean, it was Knight of Hell Ruby that convinced Sam to pilot Lucifer, and then it was Ruby and Meg who attacked the base specifically to set Lucifer loose on the world.”

“Yes, well, the Lucifer ordeal has been a point of contention among us rebel types. Ruby and Meg belonged to a faction that believes Lucifer is on our side, but not all of us are that naïve. In my view, the only good archangel is a dead one,” replied Crowley.

“Look, if you’re trying to convince me that the Knights of Hell aren’t all bad, you can save your speeches. You guys killed my parents and a shit ton of other colonists. I don’t get why you guys had to drag us into your war with Empire. We want nothing to do with you or the empire.”

“And I don’t care about your petty grievances, you Neanderthal. The only thing I care about is that you fulfill your end of the bargain, or I assure you – a fate worse than death awaits,” yelled Crowley.

“I said I’d do it,” said Dean.

“Then why is it I don’t believe you?” asked Crowley.

“Trust issues?” offered Dean.

“My men will accompany you and make sure you fulfill your end of the bargain,” state Crowley, ignoring his flippant comment.

“No,” said Dean flatly.

“No?” Crowley seemed taken aback by the response.

“I have to do this my way. I won’t be able to get through to Sammy if I’m surrounded by the Knights of Hell. If he sees you guys, it will get violent.”

“Fine. Then, we’ll keep your imperial pet hostage until you’ve completed your end of the bargain,” said Crowley, pointing at Cas.

“I’m not a pet,” growled Cas.

The idea of leaving Cas with Crowley filled Dean with horror. “No,” he said, trying to come up with an excuse. “I need him as my backup.”

“I thought you said you needed to approach him alone?”

“If things go south, I’ll need Cas to draw his fire until I can calm Sam down. And Sam knows that Cas is on our side, so he won’t immediately see Cas as an enemy.

“You think you have this all figured out, don’t you?” said Crowley. “Fine. Do it your way. I can kill you and your pet monster whenever I want.”

The ship finally came to a stop. Through one of the side windows, Dean could see that they were in the hangar of the base. However, the hangar was deserted.

“It seems that some ruffian set off the fire alarm in the hanger,” said Crowley, opening the hatch to the ship. “But it won’t be long until the fire crew arrive. Meanwhile, gentlemen: your ships await.”


	17. Apocalypse

The Impala _’s_ engines roared as Dean flew her through the Earth’s atmosphere towards the ruins of the United Earth Empire Headquarters. The Colt was a blip on his radar, as it darted from place to place, scouting for threats. They didn’t encounter any. Their path was littered with ships parts, ruined buildings, and scorched Earth. It felt as if they were in the midst of an apocalypse.

Dean and Cas kept radio silence – not because they needed to, but because the sights before them were too horrifying to vocalize. All this destruction… it was unfathomable that the cause could be his brother. How could Sammy do all this? He couldn’t. The closer they got, the more Dean doubted he would be able to reach Sammy at all. And he wasn’t even sure he wanted to. Maybe it would be better if he slept forever and never became aware of the destruction his body had caused.

But if Dean couldn’t reach Sammy, then what? Certainly, he would die. That wouldn’t be so bad. But it wasn’t just his life on the line. He was dragging Cas into this too. And if they failed to stop Lucifer from destroying the world, then it would be up to Michael. But who’s to say Michael wouldn’t eventually do the same thing? In the past, the archangels had crushed rebellion and dissention in all forms to create the Unified Earth Empire. If Michael were back at it again, it would mean the end of the Colony Militia and any hope of self-governance. The Knights of Hell would go too, and he had to admit mixed feelings about that. He hated them more than anything, but the empire needed strong opposition to keep it in check.

The crackle of a radio broke through his thoughts as Cas said, “We’re almost there. If the archangels are at the base, they will appear on our radar soon.”

Dean replied, “That’ll mean they’ll have a seen us too. Stay close.”

“Agreed,” said Cas, bringing the Coltalongside the Impala _._

Not long after, Dean noticed a large blip at the corner of his radar. “It’s definitely one of the archangels.”

“Affirmative,” said Cas.

Just as he finished speaking, the second blip appeared.

“A second archangel,” said Dean. “We have to hurry.”

“Agreed. They haven’t started fighting yet or we likely would have heard something.”

The Impala and the Coltincreased their speed, soaring past the destruction of what was once the crowning jewel of the Earth Empire. Though Dean had never seen it in person, he had seen pictures of the headquarters – soaring white buildings, dazzling marble fountains, and ornate crystal statues. None of it was left. Lucifer had destroyed every inch of it as if the whole thing offended him personally.

“Incoming!” yelled Cas.

Dean swung the Impala into barrel roll, barely avoiding the energy beam.

The Impala was being hailed. Breathing hard, he opened him the communications channels.

“Archangel Michael to unidentified ships. This area is off limits by order of the United Earth Empire.”

Dean did not reply, but proceeded forward with the Coltat his side. Michael and Lucifer came in to view. They were facing each other at close proximity. It looked like a standoff out of an old western, if old westerns had had giant mechas instead of cowboys.

Michael had drawn a golden blade the height of a tower, while Lucifer carried two shorter blades though no less impressive as the blades were cloaked in red and blue fire. Dean couldn’t help but think that the Great Unifier was a pretentious fuck, though the title itself “Great Unifier” was a good enough indication of that. It was galling that one man’s ego could cause so much suffering more than two centuries after his death.

The archangel Lucifer was now hailing him. This was Dean’s chance. He answered the hail.

Sam’s voice spoke, but it was not Sam. “You must leave, Dean Winchester. Out of respect for your brother, I give you this one chance.”

“Sam… Sammy… can you hear me?” asked Dean.

###  

Sam was in the dark. He’d been drifting off in the dark for so long, he could no longer tell when he was awake or asleep. It was all the same thing.

For a time, he had watched through the eyes of Lucifer as he destroyed whole cities using Sam’s hands. And when he could watch no longer, he drifted. There was nothing.

“You must leave, Dean Winchester.”

Hearing Dean’s name, Sam suddenly awoke. His lips were now speaking the words, “Out of respect for your brother, I give you this one chance.”

Then, he heard his brother’s voice. “Sam… Sammy… can you hear me?”

Sam tried to say ‘yes’. He had never wanted anything more in his life than to be able to say that one word. But somehow, he was disconnected as if a chasm separated his consciousness from his body.

Lucifer spoke for him. “Oh, he can hear you.”

“Sam, listen to me. You have to fight back,” yelled Dean. “I know you can do it.”

Sam was trying. Didn’t Dean know he was trying? But he’d never been good enough – not for Dean, not for his father. He wasn’t the good soldier his father had wanted him to be. But he had tried… for Dean, he had set out to save the colonies, and he had failed. His efforts had led to thousands of deaths, and now the whole world would end because of him.

The archangel Michael spoke on an open channel. “Unidentified ships. You shall leave now or be destroyed. This fight does not concern you.”

“Michael,” said Lucifer. “This fight doesn’t have to happen at all. I only wish to destroy the empire and its weak inhabitants. My quarrel is not with you brother.”

Michael replied, “The Great Unifier ordered me to destroy you and protect the empire.”

“And so you did – in another life. But I am willing to forgive your treachery if you simply allow me to finish what I need to do.”

“That is impossible,” said Michael, raising his sword in the air.

Before he could attack, a small mobile suit that Sam recognized as the Coltswept in and attacked Michael’s sword hand. The attack was so swift and unexpected that Michael dropped the sword. The Coltflew off and with an angry yell. Michael chased him.

“Sammy, I know you’re in there. Just talk to me,” yelled Dean.

“He can’t,” said Lucifer. “And I tire of you.” The archangel charged in and swung his red fiery blade. The Impalarolled out of the way, but not quickly enough to completely avoid the blow which struck the hull. The Impalaspun out briefly before Dean was able to regain control of it.

Once again, Lucifer struck with his blade, slicing off the right wing of the ship.

For a brief moment, Sam could see Dean within the ship, before the Impala began to spin towards the Earth.

The Impala. It was Dean’s baby. It always had been, and Sam had never understood that attachment. He’d never been able to share it. He hadn’t understood why Dean had so badly wanted Sam to continue on as his co-pilot. He hadn’t understood any of it until this very moment, as the Impala and Dean hurtled towards the Earth. They were the last of remnants of his family. They were the last good parts of him. They were his very soul.

The arm of the archangel shot out reaching for the Impalaand suddenly, Sam was in control again. He dove and caught the Impalaas it fell.

Sam heard his brother moan as he caught the ship.

“Dean,” he yelled.

“Sam… are you…”

In the distance, Sam heard an explosion.

“Cas!” yelled Dean.

Sam could sense Michael returning, and he knew what he had to do. Fear seized him. He didn’t want to die, but this was his mistake and he had to fix it. No one else would die because of him.

“Sam…” was all Dean could say.

“It’s okay Dean. It’s gonna be okay. I’ve got him,” he replied. Sam set the Impaladown gently.

There were no more words to be said between them. Sam could see in his eyes that Dean understood what he was about to do. Dean would never ask it of him, but they both knew this was the only way. Sam flew off to accomplish his mission and Dean didn’t try to stop him.  

As Sam rose through the air in the body of the archangel Lucifer, Michael came at him swinging his sword over his head. Sam dropped his blades and flew around the tip of Michael’s sword, hurtling towards the archangel at full speed. Then he gripped Michael tightly and shot upwards.

“What are you doing Lucifer?”

Sam did not answer. “Activate self-destruct. On the count of ten.” That would be enough time clear the area and protect Dean from the blast.

###

Dean watched as his brother took off into the sky in the Lucifer archangel, taking Michael with him.

Guilt wrenched his stomach in a vice-like grip. He’d had a chance to try to talk Sam out of this suicide, and he’d said nothing. What kind of big brother would let his younger brother sacrifice himself like that?

The more rational part of him knew that there was no other way to get rid of the archangels and protect the world from them. If the archangels had fought and Michael defeated Lucifer, Sam was dead. And Lucifer had won, Sam would have been lost to him anyway. He would not have been able to hold off Lucifer forever.

Still, it didn’t excuse Dean’s actions. He could have tried. He should have. How could he ever face himself again after this?

The ensuing explosion lit the sky in the most beautiful light. The sound tore through his whole body, assaulting his ear drums – a punishment for his failures.

He stared at the smoke until it cleared, no longer able to process the passage of time or process anything at all.

What finally roused him was the sound of footsteps in the distance. For a moment, he hoped beyond hope that Sam had miraculously survived. When he looked up, he saw Cas coming towards him.

He couldn’t quite process the emotional cocktail – disappointment and relief at the same time.

“Dean,” said Cas – one word, but filled with such love and sympathy, that it was heard for Dean to bear.

He couldn’t respond.

Cas knelt beside him and hugged him. Warm and reassuring.

Dean couldn’t take that. Not right now. He didn’t deserve it. But, he found himself too weak to pull away, as want warred with guilt.

Finally, Cas pulled away.

The words came out of Dean’s mouth in sob. “He’s dead. Sammy… my brother he’s… dead.”

Cas didn’t respond. Instead he said, “You’re cold.”

Dean realized he was right, but he hadn’t felt it until that point. There was a cold wind blowing, and living in the climate controlled colonies, he wasn’t used to it. It dawned at him that they were stranded out here without a working ship, with no food or water.

“I’ll go check the communications system,” said Cas, as he walked into the broken impala.

Dean continued to sit unmoving, staring at the spot in the sky where Sam had breathed his last breath.

When Cas returned he said, “I managed to reach Bobby in the colony. We’ll need to sit tight until we’re rescued.”

Dean said nothing.

Cas continued, “I think I can find enough wood in the ruins to build a fire.”

And so Cas began to build a fire. The sun was setting as he finished. Dean appreciated it, but couldn’t find the strength to vocalize his appreciation.

They sat by the fire for nearly an hour before Dean looked at Cas and told him, “I’m not sure I can do this.” Such understated words to describe the depth of his failure, his guilt, and his grief. The truth was, even if he could continue on, he wasn’t sure he deserved to.

Cas looked back at him, holding his gaze unflinching. “I understand.”

Those weren’t just words. Dean knew that he did. It was last thing that Cas said before he stood up and walked off into the distance. He didn’t come back.

At some point Dean fell asleep, and woke to embers. He shivered violently as he forced himself to his feet. His survival instinct brought him to the shelter of the Impala where he found a blanket from storage and huddled up in it, seeking out the most sheltered spot of the ship to curl up in and sleep.

When he woke, there was still no sign of Cas.

Dean started to get anxious. What had happened to him? Had he been captured by Earth troops? Had he been killed? Or maybe he’d simply decided not to come back. He wouldn’t blame him for that.

Dean wondered how long it would take him to starve to death. It would be a slow and painful death. Of course, he’d probably eventually cave and dig up the rations he always stored in the Impala. That thought was the very opposite of comfort to him at the moment. He continued to lie in the Impala, unable to find the will to do anything else.

It wasn’t until the following nightfall that Dean heard the sound of footsteps. Without thinking, he lifted himself out of his stupor and moved towards the gaping hole in the Impala, peering out into the darkness, trying to find the source of the sound it.

And then he saw it. There were two people – two people in the distance. He knew he shouldn’t get his hopes up, but he was suddenly overcome by this frenetic energy and ran towards the shapes without thinking.

“Sam,” he yelled, without being sure that it was his brother.

And then the shapes became clearer. It really was Sam, and Cas was bringing him back to Dean.

Sam called back, “Dean!”

The brothers reached each other at last, pulling each other into a tight hug.

“Don’t ever do that to me again, Sammy,” warned Dean.

When he pulled away, he asked, “How the fuck did you survive?”

“Lucifer let me go,” said Sam. “Before the self-destruct countdown ended, he ejected me. It was rough… but here I am.”

It was hard to believe that Sam was really here. Dean wasn’t entirely convinced that he wasn’t dreaming all this right now, but there was his little brother – banged up and limping, but alive.

Behind him, Cas stood out of the way, letting them have their moment. They wouldn’t have had it without him. Once again, Cas had saved Dean.

“Get over here,” said Dean to Cas, who looked surprised to have been remembered. He hugged them both at the same time and whispered to Cas, “Thank you.”

That night they camped and celebrated with water and dry rations. It was the single greatest night of Dean’s life. The next day, Bobby picked them up and they headed back towards Lawrence Colony. 


	18. Epilogue: Co-pilot

**Planet Earth  
310 A.U.**

“How far is this place anyway?” asked Dean from the pilot seat of the Impala.

Cas sighed. “Dean, you know we can’t take the most direct route. I’m trying to avoid the worst of the fighting. In case you haven’t noticed, there is a civil war happening on Earth.”

“This had better be worth it,” muttered Dean.

“I trust my sources, Dean. Zachariah is hiding in Beirut.”

It certainly would be worth it if they could get their hands on that asshole. Although Dean wanted to kill the son of a bitch, especially for what he’d done to Cas, the Earth general was worth more to them alive. They’d be able to sell him to the highest bidder and use the money to help supply the colonies.

Since the collapse of the Earth Empire, the colonies had mostly been forgotten, while war raged on Earth. Nations that had long been under the iron rule of the Empire were now making moves towards self-governance, while some clung to the last remnants of the Empire. Meanwhile, the Knights of Hell continued to make trouble wherever they went, attempting to replace the Empire, but inevitably fighting against themselves. Earth was in chaos, and in the midst of that chaos, the colonies thrived.

There were few Colony Militia left, but the survivors – Dean among them – were still working for the good of the colonies, scavenging and trading on Earth for whatever they needed to supply the colonies now that the Earth Empire was longer supporting them. Back on the colonies, Bobby commanded them like a general.

Their chance for self-governance had finally come and Sam was thriving in this new world, helping to set up this new government on Lawrence colony. These days, keeping busy was how Sam coped with his ordeal with Lucifer. It was too much to hope that Sam would ever be able to forget or let it go completely, but his brother was resilient. Dean had faith that Sam would be able to live the normal, peaceful life he had always wanted.

As for Cas…

“Must you be so impatient?” demanded Cas, irritably.

“Dude – you knew what you were in for when you married me,” said Dean.

“Technically, our marriage was legally invalid, as it is forbidden for Earther to marry a colonist under the law.”

“Fuck Earth law,” said Dean. “We have our own now. Besides, you know why you married me.”

“Why’s that?” asked Cas.

Dean leered at him, grabbing him by the collar and kissing him hard.

“Right,” said Cas, “It was purely physical attraction.”

“Shut up, asshole,” said Dean as he pulled away only to engage the auto-pilot.

Cas grabbed him, dragging him back to the empty cargo hold. There were definitely advantages to having a co-pilot that wasn’t his brother. 


End file.
